Justice League: Above and Beyond
by The Sulkier Clown
Summary: Shroud of Fear sequel. After months away training himself to finally let Wonder Woman in, Batman finally returns to the League. But before the two can properly reunite, an old foe returns in a way none could have expected, and none know how to fight. Countless lives are threatened as heroes make a desperate stand for good, for the innocent and for those they love. BMWW SMLL HGGL
1. Prologue: What Brought Us Here

**Prologue: What Brought Us Here**

_**A/N:**_

_Just before we get going here, thought I ought to point out to all newcomers that while this is a sequel, you shouldn't _need _to have read the first one for it to make sense and (hopefully) be a cracking good read. Everything important will be briefly recapped during the story; there'll be nothing you're (deliberately) expected to remember from what's gone before. Of course, I'm still going to recommend reading _"**Justice League: The Shroud of Fear**" _first, as well as its extended epilogue _"**Justice League: Far Away**"_, because I wrote the buggers, but you don't have to if you don't want. To each his/her/its own and all that._

_Anyways, I'll shut up now. Its time to get cracking on!_

* * *

The war had already been waged for a century. War in a place that had known nothing but peace until the invaders had arrived. All the stories of it were true. It really was hell.

That was why they were determined to stop it as quickly as possible. They definitely weren't warriors. In fact, they abhorred violence. But they were smart. They knew that if they wanted to maintain their way of life they had to fight. They had to repel these invaders, who had made it perfectly clear that talking was not an option. Force had to be met with an even stronger force. For that, these peaceful beings would need to develop an aggression of their own. Subsequently, the underground facility was built, a place where they could find a way to beat these invaders.

However, the plan did not include the invaders discovering the bunker. It definitely did not include the invaders attacking them before their work had really even begun.

But that was what had happened. The entire facility had been in the process of being brought down around them. They had been trying to fight back, but they weren't as tough as the attackers. They had quickly known that they were going to die.

That was why they had made a new plan. Being creatures of peace at heart, it hadn't been difficult for them to make the tough call; they would sacrifice themselves to defeat their attackers in the hope that others would not have to suffer a similar fate, that others could achieve peace. To pull it off, their timing would have to be precise. That was why they had linked their minds, sharing their thoughts with each other to essentially give themselves one consciousness so that they could be sure the buttons could be pressed at the same time. It was the only way to make sure none of these invaders escaped the deep underground complex.

It was the only way to ensure that the complex became the invaders tomb.

At least, again, that had been the initial plan. When the bombs went off, none of them had expected what had happened next. For millennia such a phenomenon had been talked about, but everyone to the last man had been sure that it was just a myth. Now they knew different.

When the bombs went off, they had not died. At least, their_ minds_ didn't. Their bodies were obliterated, their thoughts were not. The linking of their minds had done something to them that none of them truly understood. It meant that even after their bodies were gone, they remained, linked, as one purely psychic being, a being whose physicality was practically gone.

But that wasn't all. The destruction of their bodies in the explosions had created a kind of energy cloud housing their minds. In the fraction of a second between the cloud's creation and the spreading of the flames, the cloud had enveloped each and every one of the invaders that had been in the bunker. _Somehow_, that had meant that the invaders minds had been absorbed into the mental cloud as well.

_All _of their bodies were gone, and yet the battles between them kept raging. They thought they had ended it all, that they had defeated the invaders and made their escape. They had thought wrong. Instead, they had just created a whole new battlefield for themselves. Their sacrifice had merely meant the battle had become one of wills, of mental energies trying to take control of the others, to take control of the cloud. They knew they had to keep the invaders at bay. Initially they had no idea what this cloud actually was, but the fact the invaders were here too meant that it could be _very _dangerous in the wrong hands. They could not let the invaders take control of it and unleash it on the rest of their kind. For the war out there would be raging on, with them little knowing of its progress. All they could do was hope, and to try and keep it that way.

For centuries that battle was fought. The fact that the entire underground complex had been buried deep, deep down beneath tonnes of rock and rubble had helped. Unfortunately the invaders greater numbers meant they were winning the battle of wills, but all that weight and material had still been pinning down even the energy cloud.

Until now. The cloud was getting free. The invaders had managed to lift it, up and away through the smallest cracks in the rock caused by blasts of the energy that made up this new being. That meant that they were scared. By now the war on their world could well be over. It would surely be over, one way or another. Their people could well be long since dead.

But even if they were, that didn't mean that a _different_ world was not about to suffer because of them...

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_Me again. I know this was a bit clunky and short, but it was a rather necessary one-off evil. I just wanted to get the basic concept that I'm going for introduced here. More detail will come later on when appropriate but I didn't want things getting bogged down once the action got going._

_You may have guessed by now who these guys are but if you haven't I'll not say. I'll just say that I'm following the _Temple of Doom _approach to sequels in pushing the boat out a little and trying something which is – hopefully – completely different. You'll find out soon enough that I'm intending to get the rest of the Founding seven a lot more involved than they were in the original too. But more on that story later..._

_Next bit should be coming soon. As with the last ones, don't hesitate to review/favourite/follow. You will subsequently be in possession of some of my very precious gratitude. Enjoy!_


	2. Chapter 1: The Princess in the 'Tower

**Chapter 1: The Princess in the 'Tower**

The waters came crashing down, and crashing down hard. The shallowing of the ocean as the waves hit land slowed the waters significantly. The waves had got higher, an almighty wall of water. As it got further towards the land, the waves got slowed down more and more. Soon there was no longer enough speed for the vast column of displaced fluid to keep going. It had no where else to go but down.

The tsunami had struck.

Wonder Woman flew out of the way just in time, a small child held under each arm. She felt the spray splash against her, could feel the force of the impact of the sheer tonnage of water, but she didn't look back. She had to get these kids to safety.

The tsunami was predictably unpredictable. No one had had any warning of it, least of all all those people who were suddenly right in harms way. Thankfully, the sensors aboard the Watchtower had immediately detected the tectonic plates suddenly shift beneath the Pacific Ocean. The Justice League had been able to see the instant the waters were pushed apart by the energy suddenly unleashed upon them. It had not been hard to spot where the waves were going to strike; on the Eastern Pacific, at a small but popular island. It had many inhabitants and countless tourists residing there all year around. Being the heroes that they were, the Justice League could not just sit back and let those people die. Instantly a warning had been sent down there for people to get to high ground. For those who couldn't make it in time, help had been dispatched.

Wonder Woman was one of those immediately dispatched to the scene. With her flight and strength abilities, she was able to gather up people from the beaches and lift them away to safety, even grabbing whole bus loads of them on more than one occasion. Similarly powered, Superman was doing exactly the same, as were all the other heroes the League had been able to muster at such short notice who wouldn't just need rescuing from the waves themselves. There hadn't been the time to recall the likes of Green Lantern, the Flash and Shayera from missions they were already on to help the efforts. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they were needed.

The waves had been seconds away from the beach when the children had been spotted. The Justice League had felt that they had already gotten everyone at least far enough back from the ocean that they ought to stand a chance. They had been wrong. The two youngsters, locals in origin, had clearly not been being watched over by their guardians as they had played on the beach. They were alone out there, with no one to tell the League they were missing. More, they were young enough that the hurried commotion of the Justice League snatching people up and taking them away had scared them, so they had hid out of sight to prevent themselves being snatched away too. Thankfully, Wonder Woman had taken a second look back at the beach before the wave struck.

Superman had called after her in worry when he had watched her sudden fly right into the heart of the danger zone. She had had no chance to tell him what she was doing or why, but thankfully he seemed to quickly catch on, letting her go as fast as she could.

She made it just in time. Even a fraction of a second slower and those kids would have been lost to the waves. Perhaps she herself might have been too. But that was a purely hypothetical scenario now. She had made it. She had saved the children.

It was a good minute before she dared look back, well away from the wave by then. Hovering in the clear blue skies with a child crying from the ordeal under each of her arms, she looked down at the mayhem that had hit the island. Water stretched for far enough where once there had been a bustling community. Vehicles could be seen floating away, boats toppled and smashed, rooftops now looking like floating jetties. The entire town looked like it was gone, lost to the oceans. Thankfully though, the Justice League seemed to have showed up right on time. From up there Wonder Woman could see the gathering of her fellow heroes and all the many citizens they had lifted to safety up on a steep, _dry_ hilltop. It seemed that any loss of life to the disastrous phenomenon was going to be absolutely minimal.

The day was saved.

"I'm glad you spotted them. Nice work, Diana," Superman commented, coming to hover alongside her. He looked and sounded proud of her, as well as a little embarrassed that he hadn't spotted the two kids himself. He was the one with the complete array of vision enhancement after all.

"Thanks," Wonder Woman returned, before gesturing at the two kids, perfectly aware that chances were slim that they spoke any English. "We need to track down their parents. We can't just leave them like this. They have to know that their family wasn't lost in... _that_."

She nodded at the massively flooded land below them. It really was a mess.

"We'll get right on it, but there might be a few such cases. We had to move people rather quickly. There might be quite a few folks who are currently separated that we need to bring back together."

Superman didn't know just how right he was with that. He couldn't. The thought of the additional meanings gave Diana the odd mix of feeling giddy and gutted all at the same time. Thankfully the blend of the two meant nothing was revealed on her face.

"Then we best get to it," Diana dodged the situation, before setting off to fly down to the where the rest of the refugees were stood atop that hill. Work was the best distraction. It had been for months.

* * *

The Justice League had indeed not waited before the next phase of the task began. Simply keeping those people alive was only the beginning of the job. They couldn't just carry these folks up to the safety of that hill and leave them there. They had to ensure that these people could get back on with their lives as soon as possible, that this ordeal wasn't just a very slow end instead of a quick one.

The two children's families hadn't taken overly long to find. It turned out their parents had been right at the front of the queue, desperately asking Captain Atom to help them find the kids. When Wonder Woman had landed beside them, the children had ran straight into their parents arms with tears of joy.

Other families were being reunited all the time. Some were still separate. On top of that, some people were still missing. With several of the local citizens of the island having been making their own way to safety before the Justice League arrived, it was entirely possible that they were just waiting to be ticked off the list and were amongst the rabble in the refugee group on the hill. Of course, it was also possible that despite all the League's best efforts, some people may have still been caught up by those devastating waves.

The town was still a real mess. The waters had hardly even begun to recede. It would be a long time before it would even be possible to start the long rebuilding process. Arrangements were being made for all the tourists on the island to be taken home with whatever of their belongings had survived the tsunami. That wasn't an option for those who had made their permanent home there. For them the League had to come up with a different plan. Thankfully one of the neighbouring islands had willingly offered its lands to be used for constructing a temporary refugee camp until it was possible for the town to be liveable again.

Several of the heroes of the Justice League were still down there organising that operation, but largely the efforts had been taken over by civilian, military and charitable organisations. The Justice League were not a government. They could not impose themselves on people's lives or force their will upon them, even if it was for the people's benefit. Even in cases such as this one, such rules applied. Superman and several others had remained on the scene, particularly for some of the heavy lifting as well as for efforts to save as much of the flooded town as possible. Largely though, this was now out of their hands.

And that was why Wonder Woman was back up on the Watchtower. She wasn't the only one at that, and several of the other Leaguers who had helped save lives on that island had gone off to the Metrotower. For them, things were going back to normal, or as close to normal as they would ever get. A second after she had re-materialised, Diana stepped straight off of the transporter pad and looked directly to the control station.

J'onn was the one on duty now. Diana was glad, very glad. She had nothing against Mr. Terrific, definitely not, but for the past eight months she had always hoped that it would be J'onn that she would see up there whenever she beamed up to the Watchtower. Of course, her reasons were entirely selfish. It had been eight months since that incident with the attack by the cross-dimensional aliens. Eight _long _months.

Eight months since Batman had left. He had gone to put himself under some personal training, something that went beyond what he had studied and perfected over the years, to teach himself how to cope with some happiness in his life without losing what made him the Bat Man.

Eight months since she and Batman had both confessed their love for one another.

Diana had known that he was going, and she had accepted it. She knew that it was necessary if she and Batman were to ultimately be together in the long run. However, that didn't mean that she was enjoying this. After all they had been through to just get to the stage of understanding and admitting their feelings to each other, she was looking forward to the next stage of things. Love was hardly something she had experienced before, not of this kind, not for a man. Batman just seemed to be different. He enthralled her, captivated her in a way no one else ever could. His warrior spirit, the strength of his heart even if it was well concealed, the _choice _he made to be a hero. It all meant that despite all she had been told of men throughout her life on Themyscira, she had fallen in love with one.

But she had been apart from the man she loved from the very night they had agreed to give themselves a try. They still had plenty of issues to work out, but Diana was so looking forward to doing exactly that. The only problem was that Batman still wasn't coming back. Diana wasn't normally patient, but she had to accept that right now they had to work to Batman's timing. Despite that she wasn't really patient right now either, but she knew that there was nothing she could do to speed things along. Forcing Batman to come back would likely only slow things down or undo everything they'd achieved so far. That she couldn't allow.

However, despite all that, she _could _hope. She could hope every time that she came up to the Watchtower, Batman would be there waiting for her. That was why she always looked for J'onn. Thanks to his telepathy, he was one of only three people outside the couple themselves who knew that Batman and Wonder Woman had fallen for one another. As such, he would know exactly what it was that Diana was actually looking out for as she glanced up to the control area upon arrival.

Unfortunately, once again J'onn shook his head as Diana glanced up to him. That meant that, just like every other time over the last eight months, Diana walked away as if everything was normal. If J'onn had nodded, she would be flying away at speeds that would make Flash proud.

As things were, having been busy down on that Pacific Island for several hours, Wonder Woman set off towards the commissary, feeling more than ready for refreshments. She was there before she knew it, food all on her tray without her even thinking about it, so much so that when she began to eat it she was surprised with what lay before her. In the end, she was sat alone at one of the tables and eating away without even being able to remember the journey from the transporter to there.

"It's not like you to be sat in the corner by yourself."

Wonder Woman looked up as the sudden voice spoke up from right in front of her. It was John Stewart, the marine turned Green Lantern. It was clear that he had just arrived back from a mission of his own and had had the same first inclination that she had. However, she hadn't seen or heard him approach. She had been miles away.

"John! I'm sorry, I didn't see you come in," she said, her voice full of warmth in the face of her friend. "Take a seat. Don't worry, I'm not desperate to be left alone. It just kind of...happened."

"You're becoming more like the rest of us everyday, you know," GL replied as he indeed sat himself down across from her with a knowing smile. "Those Amazon's on that island of yours would hardly recognise you."

"John, there's no need to insult me."

Wonder Woman said it rather deadpan, and thankfully John took it as such. Diana was still proud of her heritage, very proud of it. She wasn't about to abandon it, and she knew that she wasn't losing it. She never would. She wouldn't allow that either. John had been joking, to a large extent at least. However, Diana also couldn't deny that her time in Man's World had changed her. Her feelings for Batman were the obvious example there. Still, she constantly thought of herself as far more Amazon than not. She was just taking the best of both worlds.

"So how did your mission go?" she asked as John let out a chuckle at her last comment, changing the subject. J'onn had sent Green Lantern out with Green Arrow, Fire and a rookie hero who had recently joined the League to tackle an unusual villain somewhere in North Africa. Wonder Woman hadn't heard the full story of what exactly that villain was. What she knew for sure was that it was something new, and..._different_. What she had heard she had heard in a rush, meaning that she didn't really understand properly the complex description. Rushing off not long after that to the Pacific to deal with that tidal wave didn't help things much either. Still, the fact that John was back safe and sound and smiling meant things must have gone fairly smoothly.

"Oh, nothing we couldn't handle," John answered with a shrug, before taking a bite out of the food on his plate. "Kind of reminded me of that whole thing with Brimstone actually. How about yours? I hear there was some excitement after we left."

"A tsunami in the Pacific," Wonder Woman answered after swallowing her own bite of dinner. "Thankfully this time there was only the one island in its path, and it looks like we were able to get at least the vast majority of residents to safety in time. Superman is still down there helping the efforts to see that the people are cared for now that their homes are destroyed. I got a little wet, but like you said, it was nothing that we couldn't handle."

"Good," John said with a smile, before shovelling another mouthful of food in. He took a moment to chew and swallow, Diana using the time to do likewise off her own plate. Then GL said something that completely reversed the conversation. "So Batman's still not back yet then, huh?"

Diana almost choked on her food at the shock of John's sudden question. Perhaps she shouldn't have been so surprised, since GL was another of the few who knew of the situation between her and Batman. Apparently he had somehow figured it out before even Diana herself had come to terms with her feelings for Gotham's dark knight. Still, with the conversation as it had been, the return to Batman had caught Diana off guard.

"No, he's not," she rasped once she had cleared her airway, taking a sip of water to help her rediscover her voice. "But after eight months, there's nothing setting today apart any more than any other day. He'll only come back when to us when he's ready."

John actually laughed again at that, making Diana flash him a confused look.

"I'm not sure it's _'us_' that he'll be coming back to. Not at first at least," he quickly explained. "In fact, I'm getting the very distinct impression that he's only been away this long because he's absolutely desperate not to mess things up when he does come back. When he comes back to _you_."

Diana smiled again at that. The same thought had occurred to her too several months ago, but she didn't know if it had just been a bit of wishful thinking. No matter how sincere Bruce had been that night when he had told her everything, there was still that part of her mind which held doubts, that wouldn't let the idea die that he might not live up to his word, that he might not come back to her at all. But that was a small part of her mind. Bruce had earned her full trust long before she realised she loved him, and she knew that it was a two-way street. He _would _be back, and he would stick to his promise. She knew it. John pretty much saying the same thing only helped make her all the more certain.

Of course, she and Batman weren't the only Justice League Founders whose love lives weren't exactly normal at the minute. For one, Superman was yet to reveal to Lois that he was actually just Clark Kent without the glasses, a saga which had been ongoing for years now. Most relevant right now, though, was the situation John was in.

In that moment Diana dearly wanted to offer John some words of encouragement such as those he had just given her. The problem was that no one, including Diana, seemed to know what to say to GL on _that _subject. John Stewart's love life had been complicated for a while now, to say the least. Ever since Shayera's return to the Justice League after her part in the Thanagarian invasion he had been caught between two women that he loved, the one he was with and the one he really wanted. A man of honour, John had been determined to stay with Vixen despite clearly still harbouring feelings for the former Hawkgirl. Things had just gotten even more complex when, having seen the future while stopping a villain with a time machine, John had learned that one day he and Shayera would have a son. From what Diana knew, the desire to not just conform to what fate had declared his life to be was just keeping John from Shayera more, giving him yet more reason to stay with Vixen in spite of his heart's true desire.

And then that attack by the cross-dimensional alien had happened. During the fight against them, Shayera had been wounded. John's reactions had made his true feelings abundantly clear, and Vixen was not blind enough to miss them. From that day she had known that Shayera would always be the one to really have GL's love. She had tried for a few months to get beyond that, to make her and GL still work as an item in spite of that knowledge. However, as to be expected really, her efforts had ultimately proven fruitless. Just a couple of weeks ago Green Lantern and Vixen had amicably decided to go their separate ways.

Yet John still had not gone back to Shayera. He was still too determined to live his life by his own choices, still the type of man who would rather stare fate right in the eye and then walk a different path to the one it guided him down. Everyone and their mother would be able to tell John that he and Shayera would be so much happier if they got together again, that they _belonged _together. Unfortunately, John Stewart was yet to listen.

Using the pretence of finishing off her meal, Wonder Woman racked her brain in search of some way of asking John about Shayera without saying the wrong thing and setting him back even further. As it turned out, that silence was enough to let GL know exactly what it was that she was thinking.

"Yeah, I guess you're not the only one waiting," he said, looking away from her, talking more to his food than anything now the subject had gotten a bit touchier as far as he was concerned. "But it's difficult. I'm still trying to sort everything out in my head, still trying to find my way around everything. Until I do then its better for everyone to keep things as they are. It might always be better."

Diana knew GL didn't really mean that, but once again she couldn't find the right words to say so. Instead, she took heed of the earlier part of the conversation and gave humour a chance.

"You're starting to sound like Batman. I'd fix that pretty quick if I were you."

John looked up to her again at that, actually taking a second before seeing the smile on her face signalling that she was joking around with him. Then he smiled too.

"I guess I am," he said through it. "We can't have that now can we. The Justice League wouldn't be able to take it. Flash for one would go absolutely crazy just at the idea!"

"What's to say the thought of it isn't the reason why he acts as he does already?" Diana continued the tone. "He's probably trying to keep everyone else in too light a mood for Bruce to be able to make us all as brooding as he is."

"That sounds like the sort of crazy thing he might do," John laughed again. "Where is he anyway? I wouldn't have thought it'd be like him to hang around for the bureaucracy once the _quicker _part of the job was done, not once the people were all safe and folks were on hand to help them move on."

"He and Shayera got called off on their own mission moments before the sensors registered that tsunami," Wonder Woman nonchalantly informed her colleague. "I think one of our old friends from the Death Row Gang somehow managed to escape from prison. Those two went to make sure he went back there before he could get up to any serious mischief."

"Good." All laughter had gone from John's voice again. Once again he was talking to his food instead of to her. Diana instantly understood why. The conversation had involved reference to Shayera again. It didn't matter what context it had been in. It was just the effect that even thinking about her and the romance in his life had on John at the moment. Perhaps Batman really did need to return soon. It was starting to seem like the Green Lantern needed to follow his lead in learning how to cope with letting the one he loved into his life. Or, more accurately in John's case, letting her _back _in.

Still, Diana couldn't deny that she was really thinking that for selfish reasons, that she would take whatever good reason was offered for Bruce to come back soon. Like John with Shayera, just thinking of him and what their future might hold together had a strong effect on her, she was just better at keeping it to herself. For a long time now she had tried to avoid having Bruce permanently on her mind, to concentrate on her duties as Wonder Woman as she had done ever since taking the title. However, in those earlier days she had not known that she had fallen in love. These days it was near impossible _not _to think about him, even if he had been away from her for eight very long months.

And it didn't help her efforts to avoid thinking of him while she was talking about Flash and Shayera's mission, which was taking them dangerously close to Gotham, the territory Batman so fiercely guarded...

"So John," she suddenly spoke up again, determined to change what was on each of their respective minds right now, even if was to instead talk of a topic she would not normally hold much interest in. "How are things in the rest of Sector 2814?"

* * *

_**A/N:**_

**_Don't worry, _****you'll ****_get to see Batman again soon. Beware though - updates will likely be weekly at best, for a while at least. Apologies, but this beast is taking longer to get done than previously thought, especially as its bigger than the last one and I don't exactly have much time on my hands to do it. Following the great reaction the little prologue got I'll try to be faster, but I can't make any promises._**

**_In the meantime though, review/favourite/follow away! Might just encourage me to try and speed up even more..._**


	3. Chapter 2: Getaway Driver

**Chapter 2: Getaway Driver**

Flash was doing what he was best at; he was running. Between them, he and Shayera had tracked their target down. Of course, it hadn't really been that hard to do so. The villains had left enough of a trail of chaos behind them that Stevie Wonder could have followed it with both arms tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth.

Flash had encountered these guys once before. Well, one of them anyway. The one who had done all the escaping, not the ones who'd done all the assisting. In fact, he had been one of those who had put that one guy in prison in the first place.

The Death Row Gang had been new to the scene eight months ago. There had been six of them at first, each with a different kind of enhanced power. They hadn't been the smartest bunch, nor had they been impeccably organised. That had meant that they were easy to be manipulated, easy for a proper villain to bend them to their will and own diabolical scheming. The bunch had merely been used to get the attention of the Justice League and subsequently set the heroes on the path of the then true villain's plan. The gang had done that job, but they had also been apprehended in the process, all winding up in jail. Well, all except the one who had been shot dead by the assassin Deadshot.

And now another had been killed too, only this time by one of his own friends. This one really was callous. He had murdered one of his own allies to escape from jail, even if he had surely known that the Justice League would immediately be hot on his tail.

This ones name, or at least the one he called himself by since the Death Row Gang's inception, was Guiteau, although Flash simply knew him as "Stretchy Guy", or "Armstrong" after the toy. He was certainly the most brash of his old team, the cockiest one who probably thought of himself as not only team leader but the fiercest weapon too. Heck, he probably also thought that he was more than a match for the strongest of the Justice League on his day. He also, then, must be delusional. The League had beat him before and they'd beat him again. He was relatively nothing, a mere sideshow, a distraction.

But he was _right now'_s distraction.

The "why" was yet to be discovered. It also didn't really matter, especially to Flash. They had figured out the "how" though. The death of his friend had been callous and deliberate. Guiteau had slaughtered his friend, using his shape changing ability to help him create a shank out of his own fingers. It was a shank that he had used to kill his friend, a guy known as Herrold, whose body he somehow dumped out in the out . The first the guards had known of it was when they found Herrold's corpse. The prison had gone on high alert the moment the body was found, but the initial confusion and chaos surrounding finding a dead body had given Guiteau his window of opportunity.

Folks' best guess was that Guiteau had deliberately killed his friend to create that chaos. That much was pretty obvious as soon as the walls of the jail where blown apart the opposite side of the complex to where Herrold was found. Before the guards could race across the place in sufficient numbers to stop him, Guiteau was gone, leaving a trail of rubble in his wake. Ferried away by a heavy truck with plenty of armed goons aboard, he had sped off into the night. Worse, he and his allies had somehow managed to temporarily lose all law enforcers who had given chase long enough to get good distance between him and them. No one yet knew who his helpers were, but once again it didn't matter yet. What they were up to and why they went through so much risk to break Guiteau out would be most easily discovered by catching the buggers. That would also surely stop the guys if they did have any evil plans up their sleeves.

Luckily then, they had not managed to lose the Justice League. Word wasn't slow to reach the Watchtower but it had been slow enough. By the time J'onn had them dispatched and they arrived on the case, the police were actually back on Guiteau's trail. However, they were also happy to hand this one over to two such renowned heroes. Now Flash and Shayera were hunters pursuing their prey, ready for the take down.

The truck was in Flash's sights. He could catch it easily if it wasn't for all this damn traffic. With so many people about on the roads, there was no way Flash could run full speed to get himself up there in the blink of an eye. The chances of getting tagged by one of the many cars on the road were far too high if he did, and at those speeds the chances of injury being _very _serious were also way too high. He would just have to make do going a bit slower, especially with the truck swerving all over the place to make the cars also swerve to avoid them. Clearly that was a tactic to keep Flash behind them. It was also a tactic that was working.

Shayera wasn't having quite the same problems that he was, but she wasn't really in a position to take out the truck either. She had recently been grounded for a long time following a nasty injury to one of her wings, but thanks to the magic of the docs on the Watchtower she had fully recovered. Now she was fully airborne again, meaning that it was easy for her to just fly straight over the top of all those screaming cars. The problem for Shayera was that the people on that truck were taking steps to keep her at bay too. They may essentially be throwing cars in Flash's way, but they were throwing bullets in hers. Those goons who had broke Guiteau out of prison were leant out of the truck, spraying machine-gunfire up into the skies. Shayera was having to essentially stay as far back and virtually as low down as Flash was to avoid it all. Guiteau and his goons weren't getting away from them, but they weren't getting closer to him either.

Yet.

They were determined to get these guys. Flash was a runner, but he didn't run _away_. That went for Shayera too, a battler good and true. In fact, Flash could hear her growling away, anger building at being forced to hide away like this. Her mace was firmly in her hand, fingers gripping it so tightly they were turning white.

And it was that glance that gave Flash his plan.

"Shayera, toss me your pointy stick! I got an idea!" he hollered over the wailing horns of desperately evasive cars, still dodging his way through them. Shayera was flying along above him. She flashed him an annoyed look as if he was an absolute nutter. She momentarily swerved off to one side to dodge an oncoming bus, but when she came back her mace was indeed loosed Flash's way. He just about managed to catch it without tripping himself up and going under a screaming taxi.

"I expect that back fast, Flash!" Shayera called back at him, her voice firm. That mace was her weapon. It was almost always at her side, in battle anyway. Seeing her now flying along without it certainly did seem odd. It clearly must have felt odd too, because Shayera dropped slightly further back from the stream of aerial gunfire coming from that raging truck.

But Flash's plan was to take that gun fire right out of the equation. The traffic may be preventing him from catching that truck, but it wasn't a problem they could reasonably remove. Those goons with the guns were different. _Them _they could get rid off, and then Shayera's path would be clear.

And that was what the mace was for. Shayera was it's master, but Flash could do something she couldn't. He could throw. He could move with such speed that he could hurl the mace with enough force to give the goons one hell of a headache, even more than Shayera herself could manage. He could hit the truck with enough force to send those guys flying off, without having to get close enough to risk getting hit himself. He could give Shayera a way in.

But he had to get the angle right. He had to get the shot lined up, and he couldn't do that while still on the run. Thankfully, he didn't have to.

Another car horn screamed as it had to desperately avoid the angry monster that was the getaway truck. The car swung, its tyres squealing and leaving black marks on the asphalt. This one pretty much came to a stop due to its evasive manoeuvre. That meant it was easy for Flash to run onto its roof, hardly having to break his stride. He could even run faster than before without oncoming traffic in his way. Barely had that car halted than he was suddenly halting right atop its bonnet.

And less than a second after that the mace was hurling forwards into the truck.

It struck, and it struck hard. Those goons had been so focused on keeping Shayera back that they hadn't been looking out for Flash. That meant that they weren't able to brace for the impact. Flash hadn't been accurate enough to go for one of the wheels and take the truck completely off the road, but he had been accurate _enough_.

It hit the rear bumper, and strong enough to dent it, making the truck lurch. Flash saw from his perch as all the armed goons were jolted. They each made a desperate grab for the truck doors that they had been leant out of, something to cling onto. Only one made it. The rest were thrown completely clear, crashing down hard onto the tarmac and other vehicles. All of them lost their weapons from the hit, but the truck kept going regardless. Guiteau and his driver left their fallen comrades behind. More, they made no effort to help the one desperately clinging to the open rear doors, his feet scraping painfully along the ground. He only lasted seconds before he couldn't hold on any more, tumbling away into the road with a howl of pain.

Flash began to run again, still having work to do to catch all the bad guys for good. As he ran he clobbered the fallen goons around him, making sure they were all down for the count. However, he wasn't as quick in going after them as Shayera.

Barley had Flash leapt down from atop the stationary car than she was swooping beyond him. With the gun fire out of the way, she didn't waste any time. Initially she kept low, but only so as to snatch up her mace from where it had dropped to the tarmac before she was quickly heading up into the air. She didn't even wait to take care of the fallen goons, leaving them all to Flash. The truck was her target, good and true. Flash only just had the last goon unconscious by the time that she was in place to strike. He swerved around a motorbike to keep her in view as she prepared to pounce.

Her angle of attack was steep, coming down from the skies. Clearly the truck's engine was her target, her descent leading her straight down to the front of the truck, mace behind her head ready to strike the metal with all of her might and _force _the truck to stop its rampage. Flash had no doubts at all that it was going to work, that they had stopped yet another bad guy's machinations.

At least, that was until he watched what actually happened.

To his horror, Flash saw the shape quickly blast out of the truck's cab, encasing the bonnet just in time. The blob solidified, and solidified hard. Shayera slammed her mace against it before she could even react to it being there. There were a _lot_ of things the mace would smash its way through, but not this thing.

It was Guiteau himself. He had hurled himself forward, using his shape changing abilities to safeguard his getaway vehicle, hardening his rubbery skin so that he could take the blow with ease. Worse, he rather absorbed Shayera's mace, pulling it inside himself as if he were made of quicksand. Flash watched Shayera desperately try to pull it clear but her efforts were to no avail. In fact, they left her guard down instead. She was after the mace so much that it left the doors open for Guiteau to change his shape again, forming a mighty fist to pummel right into Shayera's head.

The Thanagarian fell, stunned. Flash was about to call out her name as he ran past her fallen form, but thankfully he saw her instantly scrambling back up to resume the chase herself. The problem was their best chance of getting that truck off the road had just been taken from them.

And that was when things got dark. All of a sudden the lights faded. It took Flash a moment to realise why, thinking even less when he was pelting along the insanely insane roads than he would normally. They must have gone down into the tunnels beneath the main streets without him noticing. Hell, they must have entered the city limits without him noticing. But that wasn't all. Things had gotten even darker than that. Bar the headlights of that still rampaging truck and the few cars which weren't getting the hell out of there, the entire place had gone pitch black.

The whine of a very different engine was what made Flash realise something else. He remembered what city this was. They had entered into Gotham...

It all happened before he even realised it. The whine of those engines grew ever louder, but in the darkness he never saw it coming until it was right on top of them. Evidently, the same could be said of Guiteau and his driver. The escapee had just scrambled back into the cab, surely having loosened up his skin again, sure that the danger had passed. Even the truck's blaring headlights had not shown them the Batmobile coming, and coming right at them.

And it just kept coming.

Flash had to desperately skid to a stop to dodge the mayhem. He watched in amazement as the Batmobile emerged, soaring _under _the villain's truck, ramping it up into the air with a vast scoop on its front. The truck leapt like such a truck should never do. For a long second it hung into the air as the Batmobile skidded to a halt just beyond it, before crashing back down to Earth with an almighty thump. Doors were thrown clean off the hinges, huge chunks of body work denting, the suspension shattering. Most damaging of all, both axles clearly snapped in twain. The engine of the truck was still purring, but the pieces were going nowhere. All the actions were doing was to make the thing spark.

It didn't take Guiteau long to realise that his escape vehicle was knackered. Flash was just about to get going again when the man tumbled out of the opening in the side of the cab where his door had been seconds earlier. The murdering fugitive was visibly shaken and battered, making it more obvious than ever that he hadn't put up his defences in time. Flash guessed that the pain he would be in from the crash would also make him slow to get them up now. However, he didn't have the chance to test that theory.

The air whistled just for a moment before the soft thud. Guiteau let out a surprised noise through his pained moans. It was all that he had time to do before he became lit up like a Christmas tree. Light began pulsing through his body which was suddenly convulsing, his groans of pain now much more constant and intense. It only lasted a second but it was enough. The man's nervous system had just been shocked, _sonically_. Flash knew why before the guy hit the deck, unconscious.

Once again he was halting himself, but this time it was in awe. Before he knew it Shayera was landing down at his side having caught up following the blow she took.

"Batman?" Shayera almost silently voiced to him, at which Flash could merely shrug.

Both of them looked at each other in total surprise before looking down at the stationary Batmobile. They could see the ramp-like frontage, could see the places where the panelling of the legendary car had been shifted mid-drive to take up that shape, almost like the car was a Transformer. They could also see the damage the car had taken, the weight of the truck having seemingly crushed a fair amount of the elongated front end. The car looked like it wouldn't be going anywhere soon, but the cockpit looked fine, untouched by the truck lurching over it. Both Flash and Shayera slowly walked towards it, expecting their long absent ally to leap out of it as only he could. It had been months since they had even heard anything from him. Neither knew what to say at the thought that one of their original merry band ought to be right there, back with them. They were just waiting for the cockpit to pop open and the black clad figure to emerge. The unconscious Guiteau was just left waiting on the deck as they did so, no thought at all going to the driver still in the battered truck's cab.

"You're in my city."

Both Flash and Shayera jumped in surprise at the exact same moment. The voice came from _behind _them. Flash spun with intense speed. Sure enough, Batman was there. The man really was a ninja. A gadget-ridden ninja. A gadget-ridden, genius, tough guy ninja. The guy must have _somehow _been driving the car by remote and hiding up in the ceiling of the tunnel, ready to pounce on Guiteau once his defences were down. Or he had a very subtle ejector seat. Or he had made himself momentarily invisible. _Anything _was believable with Batman.

He was still dressed the same as ever, he still looked as _cheery_ as ever, but despite it all Flash was still suddenly overjoyed to see him there. Batman could very definitely scare the living daylights out of him with just a glare. He was hardly ever warm, friendly, comforting or even nice. But he was one of them, and after all that the Justice League had been through together, it didn't matter how different they were. Every last one of them, especially the Founder's, were Wally West's closest friends. Batman included. That was why he couldn't stop himself from giving Batman a brotherly hug the second he overcame his shock at the man not being in the car.

"Let. Go."

The growl was issuing from Batman within milliseconds. He wasn't the hugging type, and with the steel in his voice, Flash quickly obeyed. It was when he did so that he noticed that Shayera had actually been giving old Bats a hug too. It seemed Mr. Dark and Scary had been more missed by the Leaguers than Flash had ever realised.

"Bats! Long time no see, ol' buddy, ol' pal!" Flash blurted out in excitement. He had selfish reasons to be excited too, of course. The rest of the Justice League had had to get a whole lot more serious without Batman around. Bats had always been willing to do the less exciting jobs, to see to it that reports were filed properly, that maintenance on the Watchtower was impeccably maintained, that everyone knew what they were doing without question. Without him around, the rest of the Founders had had to step in and take on even more responsibility for those more menial jobs. More, they had also had to try and think more as the common man and how a team of superheroes could actually be viewed as a dangerous thing. Once again, that had always been one of Batman's specialities, keeping the Justice League in check with who they were protecting, in no small part because of how he had no powers himself. Flash had always been the League's heart, so that part had rather befallen him. He was more than happy to help people, but that sort of task was far too dark and morbid for his liking. He wanted Batman back to take it off of his hands. That meant that he was acting even more excited than simply from reuniting with a good friend. He was positively giddy.

Batman, however, had clearly already had enough of him, especially when he viewed that there was still work to be done. That was why he addressed Shayera next, actually handing her back her mace that he must have somehow retrieved when their backs were turned.

"The GCPD will be here to pick up these crooks at any second," he growled in his typically deep, emotionless voice. "They've been alert and ready to lock them back away since before the breakout began."

"You knew Guiteau was coming? How?" Shayera voiced in shock. She too was clearly glad to see Batman again, despite some past differences between those two that Flash was yet to understand. She was just better at sticking to task than he was.

"The breakout was all a part of a scheme by Cobblepot," Batman answered her. "The plan was to get Guiteau out of jail without anyone knowing. Two-Face had a plan to rob Gotham's Second National Bank that required someone with Guiteau's particular skills, so he hired the Penguin to use his underworld connections to get Guiteau out. Dent told me everything when I turned him over to police custody, but we were too late to stop the breakout from happening. Luckily Guiteau got cocky and made a mess instead of trying to disappear. It made catching him so much easier."

"Easy?" Flash blurted out again. "We've been chasing this guy for miles! You had to wreck your car to actually stop him!"

Once again, Batman ignored Flash, continuing on as if the Scarlet Speedster had not said a word. "I knew that he would still come here. It fits his profile. He's arrogant and stupid. He would think that because Penguin wanted him out he could blackmail Cobblepot into getting him safely from any police, otherwise he would expose Penguin's role in his escape. He wouldn't realise that such a move would be predictable. He wouldn't realise that stopping the two of you would not be enough. It was simply a matter of getting him in the right place, removing his defences and taking him down."

Batman broke off then as sirens suddenly began blaring behind him. Seconds later a horde of police cars had pulled up, officers swarming out. In no time the array of unconscious goons were being rounded up. Guiteau was picked up by a guy Flash was sure he had seen on the news before; the legendary Commissioner James Gordon himself. Batman looked over his shoulder at the police, offering the Commissioner a nod. Flash was absolutely gob-smacked to see the Commissioner _smile _at Batman in return.

"I may have been gone for eight months, but the rules haven't changed," Batman suddenly spoke again, turning back to Flash and Shayera as if what was happening behind them wasn't happening. "Get out of my city. Go back to the Watchtower. I'll be there soon to file my report."

"Wait... You're coming back?" Flash couldn't help himself. Once again, the words were tumbling out of him before he had even thought about them. Beside him he could see Shayera tense up too, almost as if she was thinking the exact same thing. However, there was also a very confusing, very _knowing _look to her that if Flash wasn't so caught up in the moment he may well have had to call her on. "As in _back _back?"

"Eight months is long enough," Batman simply answered, turning his back on them and beginning to move over to the Commissioner and the freshly arrested Guiteau. However, he did stop to say one more thing before he was gone. "Besides, there's something I need to do up on the Watchtower. And I didn't _have_ to wreck the Batmobile. It was time for a new one anyway."

Flash was completely lost for words. Not only was Batman suddenly back, but he could have sworn he had just heard him _crack wise_. He couldn't believe it. This morning he had woken up just like every other day over the last eight months. Now things were suddenly going back to how they had been before that. No, that wasn't quite right. Batman _never _joked then, no matter how subtle. Not around Flash, anyway.

He didn't realise just how frozen he had been by that until he felt Shayera put an arm on his shoulder. He quickly looked back at her, noticing her eyes weren't leaving Batman's retreating back. There was _definitely _a look in her eyes as if she knew or understood something that Flash didn't, as if she had an additional, completely different reason to be glad that the original seven would be together again soon. Flash, though, wasn't about to get the chance to ask her what it was. Shayera had her comm active and was quickly talking into it before he could say anything at all, though her words only provided yet more intrigue.

"Shayera to J'onn. The situation's handled. Beam us back up. And J'onn, a word of warning. There'll be a _very familiar_ third coming up any minute after us. You might want to get the right people prepared."

* * *

**_A/N:_**

**_As usual, gratitude has been dispatched for all fandom to date. More is in stock for all new reviews/follows/favourites. Its all appreciated!_**

**_Catch you all again soon!_**


	4. Chapter 3: Long Time No See

**Chapter 3: Long Time No See**

It had been a busy shift that day for him. First there had been GL's mission down to Africa against that new threat, villainous or otherwise. Then there had been the tsunami out in the Pacific threatening an entire island's worth of people. And then there had been the prison break in North America. And that wasn't even mentioning the hordes of smaller missions that the Justice League were always embroiled in. Yes, it had indeed been a busy night.

But despite it all, J'onn still found the time to reach out telepathically to his wife.

It was his turn for duty at the moment. Ever since his return to the Justice League during Darkseid's attack, he and Mr Terrific had been taking command in shifts. J'onn couldn't do the job full time any more. Now he had a reason not to. No longer did he have to stay cooped up on the Watchtower alone all the time. No longer did he want to. Now he wanted to spend his time with his latest family. Now he wanted to have a life again. Now he _did_ have a life again.

He had never expected it to happen. He had never expected to move on, to find a new place that he could well and truly call home. His years with the Justice League had made him care about the Earth deeply, yes, but it wasn't the same to him as Mars had been. It was a wonderful place, but it wasn't his home. It wasn't where he was from, where he had spent hundreds of years of his life. It wasn't where he had had – and lost – his family.

Not a day went by when J'onn didn't think about the wife and children that had been taken from him by the Imperium and their invading army. Being the last of his kind was lonely enough as it was. Being the last of his family had made it even worse. That loneliness and loss had drove him to solitude, no matter how much he cared about this new world and his new friends. It just wasn't the same.

Then Wonder Woman had encouraged him to spend time among the people of the Earth, to spend time as a common man, to take in what this world really had to offer, as she had done. J'onn had – eventually – decided to give her idea a try. It was then that he had met his new wife.

He would never forget the life he once had, the family he had lost, but she helped him to see that his own life was not over. She helped to give him more reason and purpose beyond his heroics. She had taught him that even after so much hardship and suffering he could still find happiness again. She was very much the reason why he now _looked forward_ to his time when he wasn't on duty.

For that, he would be eternally grateful to her. But he would also never stop missing the life he had once had, no matter how happy he was now.

He reached out to her again. At this distance he couldn't really converse with her telepathically, but the bond between him and his wife had become firm and strong enough that he could detect her with ease, even with all the billions of other minds down there with her. He was glad to register that she was happy. Rather selfishly, he was also glad to detect that she was missing him, despite him only having been away for a matter of hours.

Still, if she had been a fellow Martian, the distance or the crowds wouldn't have mattered. The link would have meant that so much more could happen now than just registering his wife's feelings.

Despite it all though, J'onn was happy. He was in a healthy, stable and loving relationship with a woman that he wanted to be with for a long, long time, despite the differences. Of all the Justice League's founding seven, it was remarkable that he was the one to have found love in such a way. He very much doubted that anyone would have believed that a couple of years ago.

As it was though, things were complicated for all of his friends. There was also the GL/Shayera situation, Superman's ongoing fling with Lois and then Flash with his constant awkwardness at awkward times around the opposite sex. But Batman and Wonder Woman topped the lot.

Wonder Woman had returned to the Watchtower a few minutes ago. The look she had given J'onn upon doing so meant that he didn't need telepathy to know what she was thinking about. J'onn had played a key part in helping her to understand her feelings towards a certain masked vigilante. He had known about it longer than she had thanks to both his telepathy and her... _lack of experience_. He had monitored things throughout the long development between the two, so he was one of the few in prime position to know what she was going through. Of course, with Batman away he couldn't read what _he_ was going through, but he did know his friend. He knew that it was about time that Batman returned, for both of their sakes.

It was just as he was thinking that that the call came in from Shayera.

_"Shayera to J'onn. The situation is handled. Beam us back up. And J'onn, a word of warning. There'll be a very familiar third coming up any minute after us. You might want to get the right people prepared."_

The smile was creeping across his face even as he was hitting the buttons to bring Flash and Shayera back aboard the Watchtower. Batman was coming back. He could just imagine the look on Diana's face when she would find out.

The thought of such potential love and happiness made him reach out to sense his own wife again, revelling in the happy thoughts.

They meant that he didn't pick up the outside source listening in on _him_.

* * *

"Yeah, but of course, none of it compares to what we do here," GL went on. He had been talking for a while now about all things Sector 2814. Diana had listened intently to it. She was enjoying just sitting here chatting with John, as if they weren't all superheroes who so often had the fate of the entire world on their shoulders. It also helped her to forget about all of life's other problems. "Nothing out there is quite like the Earth, you know?"

"There is a reason why the gods favour us so," Wonder Woman responded. "And I for one am certainly glad for it. Our world truly is a beautiful place. It gives us yet more reasons to make sure we protect it."

"Not exactly like we need another one, though, is it?" GL said with a smile. "There's enough out there for us to be safeguarding as it is. Enough _people_. But hear, hear!"

He held up his glass for a toast, with Diana quickly following his lead. She didn't fail to notice his stressing of the word "people". He was clearly referring to a certain two when he said it, a certain two who were very close to each of them respectively.

Rather aptly, it was just then that they heard Flash's rather excited shouts start echoing throughout the Watchtower as the Scarlet Speedster sped around the corridors. He was clearly determined that everyone who could heard what he had to say. Little could he know just how much Diana actually wanted to hear what it was that he was shouting.

"He's back! He's back! Hey, everyone! Bats is coming back!"

Diana instantly shot up in her chair. She stayed seated, but to an onlooker she might have looked rather like a meerkat sensing danger. Her attention was well and truly caught. Was this the day after all? Was this the day that she had been waiting for for eight long months? After so long, was it finally here?

"Look busy everyone! Look busy! You don't want him turning that scowl on you on his first day back, do you? I repeat, Batman's coming back!"

A red form suddenly appeared in the doorway as Flash rapidly flung himself to a stop in the commissary doorway. He seemed to instantly spot Wonder Woman and Green Lantern sat in the corner, latching onto them and zipping over to their table. Before either of them knew it, Flash was at their side, leaning over them with one arm wrapped around each of them.

"Hey, guys! Bats is coming back!" he quickly babbled on before either of them could react any more than the initial looks of surprise. "Me and Shayera just ran into him in Gotham when we were chasing down that stretchy guy! And our favourite gloomy guy said that he's on his way back any second! Speaking of which, I better get going! There's still plenty of people to warn!"

And then Flash was gone as quickly as he had arrived, but he had certainly had a major impact on things. Diana quickly looked over at GL. Her feelings on the situation were abundantly clear. She made no efforts at all to hide them. In front of GL there would be no point anyway. He already knew that her heart desperately wanted her to leave this chair and this room. Now she definitely had somewhere else that she wanted to be. Somewhere else where she _needed _to be. After eight months she didn't want to wait any more, not even for a second. She had to be there when he arrived back up on the Watchtower. Ideally, she had to be there to greet him _alone_. GL obviously saw that much in her eyes.

"I think that Flash might need a hand spreading the news," GL said as if he was musing aloud, though Wonder Woman knew that he was saying it for a different and very deliberate reason. "Perhaps you should head up to the teleporter without me, give our friend a proper welcome back."

Wonder Woman instantly grinned more broadly than the Cheshire Cat, gently resting a hand on one of GL's where it lay on the table between them.

"Thank you, John," she voiced her immense gratitude, her voice giving away the giddiness that she was feeling with every fibre of her being. GL smiled back in return.

"Go get him."

Wonder Woman did not need telling twice. She was gone even quicker than Flash had been, literally taking off into the air and flying her way throughout the Watchtower's corridors. She flew right over the heads of anyone she came across out there, no matter who they might be. One or two startled looking heroes even called after her, sounding worried that something drastically wrong might be happening, They were worried that they might be needed somewhere, particularly due to Wonder Woman's speed as she darted beyond them all. However, Diana did not even bother to pause to explain things to them, or at least lay any unease she might have stirred in them at rest. She was just too determined to reach the teleporter room. She had to be there when he got back. It might sound silly, but she wanted to be the first thing that he saw when he re-materialised. She definitely thought it was a silly notion herself. A year ago she would be chastising herself for such a thought, being the proud Amazonian warrior that she was. But then a year ago she had never thought that she would be in love with a man. Living in this world had definitely changed her, at certain times at least. This was one such time. She wanted to be the first thing he saw. She wanted him to be returning to her before he was returning to the Justice League. Call it selfish, but that was how things were.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of many people so often went wrong. Wonder Woman just happened to be one of those people.

She arrived at the main teleporter chamber full of that optimistic hope, landing just before she opened up the door. She eagerly hit the button, picturing how this should go in her mind. In there, the second the doors opened there was the flash of light and then Batman was there before her, with them then running into each others arms. Not very warrior-like, but she was quickly developing her romantic side.

But when the door did open, things were quite different to how she was imagining them. Despite all her efforts to get here fast, she hadn't been fast enough. Batman had already arrived.

She was halted in her tracks before she could begin to move towards him. She had wanted this day for so long, and now that the moment was here she didn't know what to do. She just froze, staring across at him.

He looked exactly as he did when she had last seen him. Exactly as he did every time Diana had pictured him in her mind since. He was... Well, he was still Batman. His face was still shrouded behind the cowl, his jaw set firm giving nothing away. With those white lenses hiding his eyes she couldn't tell for sure if he was looking her way, but she felt pretty sure that being the master detective that he was Batman would have looked up when he heard someone new entering the room. However, he still wasn't reacting. In truth that didn't surprise Diana. That was just Batman's way. He had never been the type to display emotions in all the time that Wonder Woman had known him, apart from his anger. There was no reason for that to change now. When they had confessed their love for one another, Wonder Woman had even made the point that, unlike so many women who had been in his life before her, she didn't _want _him to change. She loved him for who he was. Despite all that though, she couldn't lie and say that she wasn't disappointed that he didn't at least smile at the sight of her.

But just seeing him again was enough for now. It would have to be. Batman beating her here was not the only way in which Diana's plans had not come to fruition. They had company, company that didn't know the truth about what was going on between the two of them. Wonder Woman tried to make herself look as normal as possible – albeit doubting how successful she was at doing so – not wanting to give anything away until the time was right for others to know. The thought – or perhaps _hope –_ crossed her mind that perhaps that was the reason why Batman had reacted so seemingly indifferently to her arrival.

J'onn and the civilian controllers would be up top working the devices of course, but they were all out of sight and out of earshot right now. Superman was in there too, the only other person in the main area. His back was to Diana where he stood between her and Batman. He was stood with Batman, clearly conversing with the returning hero. From the look of Superman, he had only just got back himself, obviously no longer needed down in the Pacific with the local authorities taking over the recovery operations. He looked happy himself to see possibly his best friend back. Not as happy as Diana of course, but happy all the same.

"What kept you?" Superman was saying through his great, big grin, his words making it pretty clear that the conversation was in its infancy. One of the two men had clearly only arrived moments before Wonder Woman. Now that she looked closer, it looked almost like Batman had just fended off a hug from Superman. She suspected that he might be doing that a few times in the coming days after having been away for so long from a group of people who had all learned to respect him greatly. She knew that she for one wanted to embrace him in an expression of joy. However, she also knew that she could well be the exception, the one of them that Batman would _want_ such an action from.

"I was busy," Batman very simply told Kal, still giving nothing away. His voice was as deep and gravelly as ever. Hearing it again gave Wonder Woman the oddest of sensations deep in her stomach, as if it had just done a somersault, even if he was still giving no indication of knowing that she was there. "I still am. This'll have to wait until later."

"Come on, Bruce!" Kal countered, though he didn't sound surprised, nor did his mood dampen at all. Wonder Woman continued to watch on from the sidelines. It wasn't her forte, but she would be patient. She didn't want to have to act, so she was going to wait her turn. "You've been gone for almost a year! What can possibly be so important that you can't spend a minute or two to say hello? Its not like the world's ending again right now."

"I have reports to file, systems to check, maintenance programmes to implement, scans to run," Batman immediately argued back as if such things were the most important in the world. "As you say Kent, I've been gone for almost a year. I have to make sure that things are still running smoothly after my absence."

"What's the matter, Bruce, don't you trust us?" Superman said with a smirk. It was an attempt at humour, referencing back to the time when Batman had left them in the first place. Back then there had been a big issue between Batman and the Justice League, a matter of trust that had almost seen Batman expelled from the group until he had finally explained things to Superman and set things straight. Typically, Bruce wasn't finding Kal very amusing.

"It's _important _work," he simply stated instead, stressing the word firmly and _very _seriously. He was making sure that no room for doubts was left open, giving Superman one of his best glares to aid the process.

"I guess I'll leave you to it then," Superman gave in after a moment's pause. He sighed as he spoke, the smile now fading from his face. He had clearly been looking forward to this day too. Wonder Woman wasn't the only one whose plan for this day hadn't come to fruition. "I'm due to see Lois in Metropolis soon anyway."

"With or without the glasses?"

Batman said the words dryly, as if there was nothing to them. Wonder Woman knew exactly what it was that he truly meant. Was Kal going to see Lois as Superman or as Clark Kent? It was almost as if Batman was judging his friend for not having told Lois the truth about his identity. It was a bit rich, that, coming from the man who had spent years dodging away from telling the woman he loved about his own feelings. No matter how much she loved him, Wonder Woman still felt annoyed with Batman for that comment, one which Superman sheepishly avoided.

"Its good to have you back, Bruce," Superman said instead, a resemblance of a smile actually returning to his face. "It'll be just like old times. We'll catch up when I get back. I'll not let you dodge out of it next time."

"Right," Batman gave the non-answer in response, simply staring Superman down as he so often would. However, that just made Superman smile again. The old Batman they all knew and loved was certainly back. No matter how rude he might seem, it was clear that Wonder Woman was far from the only one who had missed him.

She continued to stand silently by in the doorway as Superman climbed up onto the teleporter pad. Batman watched as Superman performed the action, facing the big Kryptonian all the way and still seemingly not noticing that Diana was there. Before both of their eyes, Superman looked up to the control centre and where Wonder Woman knew J'onn would still be stationed.

"Energize, J'onn," Kal said. And the next second he was gone, teleported away in a flash of light. Technically J'onn's control station was in the room, but with it out of sight for all intents and purposes Superman's departure meant that Wonder Woman and Batman were now alone. J'onn spoke to her telepathically in that instant, as if to emphasize that point. Unlike Superman who seemed too distracted to notice, the Martian would have known she was there before she had even arrived.

"_I shall see to it that the two of you now get some privacy. Good luck, Diana_."

Wonder Woman felt the smile cross her lips upon hearing those words cross her mind. However, she did not remain focused on them for very long. It was then that Batman finally turned to face her properly for the first time in far too long. Her breath suddenly caught in her lungs as he began to slowly walk towards her, though he still was giving no indication of how he was feeling. Now that they were alone, Wonder Woman couldn't hold it all back any more.

"Bruce!" she virtually breathed his name, too overjoyed to shout it.

She flung herself forwards, flying the short distance that was left between them and wrapping him up in her arms. She held him up close, hands clenching tightly against the fabric of his cape. If he didn't always ensure every aspect of the real him was hidden to maintain his identity then she would be drinking in every line, every scent, Hera, even every taste of his right now. It took her along moment to realise that he wasn't reciprocating her action.

"Bruce, what's wrong?" she asked as soon as she registered that. She pushed herself back so that she could see his face properly again, only to see that it was still completely unmoved. That giddy feeling that had taken hold of her was suddenly gone. She really didn't like the new feeling that was taking its place. She was starting to feel scared. Why? Why was he _still _failing to react? Why, after all that had changed between them the last time they had spoken? "What is it?"

"Now isn't the time, Princess," Batman stated simply in response, remaining completely stoic.

_That _was really starting to annoy her now. He had agreed. Eight months ago, Wonder Woman had said there was only one thing about Batman that she would ever want him to change. She had told him not to shut her out, and he had promised to do as she asked. Never in those eight long months had she doubted that he would live up to his word. Now she was starting to have doubts. Now she was suddenly starting to doubt everything. Damn, Bruce could affect her like no-one else could ever manage. She _really _was in love with him.

"Bruce, now is exactly the time," she countered him. This was definitely not going to plan. Never had she envisaged there first minutes back together evoking an argument. "Have you forgotten what happened? Have you forgotten what we both said in your cave? Have you forgotten how we both _feel_? I've waited eight long months for you Bruce. You said you needed time and I gave you time. Please, just give me a few moments now. Tell me what's wrong."

"Diana," Bruce practically whispered her name, dropping the typical growl from his tones as he did so. His jaw even seemed to loosen slightly, as if just saying her name reduced the anger that he utilised so well. "I _will_ tell you everything. I haven't forgotten a single second of that night. I _never _will. There's just something that I need to do first."

"Filing reports?" Wonder Woman blurted out in shock at what she was hearing. "Checking maintenance systems? Bruce, surely those things can wait..."

"Those one's can," Batman cut her off, the firmness coming back to his voice now. "But not every task I told Superman is so mundane. Princess, something is going on, something I have to check out to make sure its not truly dangerous. I need to use the Watchtower's sensors to do that."

"Bruce, tell me this isn't another solo crusade," Diana virtually pleaded, harking back to the last time she had seen Batman in action. Then he had fought an entire army of incredibly deadly aliens to save the world, to save _her_, and he had done so without bringing the Justice League into it. Being Gotham's protector was one thing, but for the world as a whole, against such overwhelming numbers... Batman may well be the most dangerous man on Earth, but even he couldn't do everything, especially twice.

"This isn't like before, Princess," Batman was quick to assure her. "But I have to investigate this. If I need help, you'll be the first one that I call."

Wonder Woman could immediately tell that that was the best that she was going to get, right now at least. "Then do what you have to. What is this thing anyway?"

"I can't say for certain," Batman answered. He had begun walking as he said it as Diana took a step to his side. She made sure that she matched strides with him. She may have relented and allowed him this extra time, but that didn't mean she couldn't go with him _now_. Together they strode out of the main teleporter room. From what little Batman had really told her, it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was leading her to the control room and its equipment. "Not with what I know so far. But I have my suspicions from what I've been able to detect from Gotham, and I don't like it."

"Do you at least know where this thing is?" Diana continued to question him, definitely feeling that the more she found out about this now, the quicker she could help Bruce to resolve it so that the two of them could then finally reunite properly. By now they were already fairly deep into the corridors, well on their way to where they were going. "How long do we ha–?"

She never finished that sentence. She didn't have the chance to. The blood curdling scream saw to that, a scream so loud that it reverberated thunderously throughout the corridors around them despite there being no-one else in sight. Instantly both Wonder Woman and Batman looked back in the direction they had just come from, both registering from where the scream had emanated. They both also recognised from the sound exactly who it was who was screaming, who it was what was in such obviously incredibly intense pain; J'onn.

Wonder Woman quickly looked back to Batman. All he had to do was give her a quick confirming nod and she was in the air and scooping him up. Her flying was the quickest way for both of them to get there and there was no doubt that that was where they both needed to be. Whatever had happened in these last few moments, whatever they had planned before, neither of them were about to abandon their friend.

As Wonder Woman raced through the air once again, Batman draped in her arms, she couldn't help but feel that J'onn's scream was the answer to her unfinished question. Perhaps this thing Batman had come back to investigate was already here.

However, despite the possible ramifications of that, that thought didn't frighten her anywhere near as much as the thought that it might be this thing that Batman returned to the Justice League for, and not her. Again, she knew it was selfish but she couldn't help it. She knew that she would need to resolve those fears, just as soon as they had helped J'onn.

_If_ they could still help him...

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_I've just realised I forgot to throw in a disclaimer at the start again, so here it is instead. I own none of the non-original stuff herein. That lot belongs to DC and their parents at Time Warner. Shame, but that's how things are._

_Anyways, review/follow/favourite away friends. See you next week, same Bat-Time(ish), same Bat-Channel!_


	5. Chapter 4: Incursion

**Chapter 4: Incursion**

It was easy for J'onn to ensure that Batman and Wonder Woman had some privacy. None of his staff in the control room even knew that Wonder Woman was there, so none of them would be guessing the true reason for him sending them all away on various unnecessary tasks any time soon. That meant that he alone was now in the control room and, with only the two of them down there in the teleporter area, that meant there were no eavesdroppers around. As for J'onn himself, he could easily chose not to listen. It was a simple task of giving his mind something else to focus on.

Some_one _else, to be more accurate.

That was why he took yet another moment to reach out to his wife. It didn't matter if it had only been a matter of minutes since he had last done so. It didn't matter if in that time her feelings were completely unchanged. He just liked to feel close to her.

However, his pleasant moment did not get to last as long as he hoped.

It turned out that stretching out telepathically was a big mistake. In doing so he had opened up his mind. That had never been a problem before. He had not expected it to be a problem now. It wasn't like there was a lot of active, adversarial telepaths out there to assault him, even if said enemy had known how to. Therefore he had not even considered the possibility that opening up his mind could be dangerous, let alone reject it.

He was wrong there. He was very wrong. The external mind – or minds – imposed upon his suddenly, forcefully. It came completely out of nowhere, so strongly that it took all of his effort to try and keep it at bay. However, that effort wasn't enough. This other mind was stronger than his, far stronger, almost like it was hundreds of minds in one. There was nothing he could do to keep them out. There was no way this outsider, whoever they were, could take control of his body, but that didn't mean that they couldn't hurt him, badly, knowingly or otherwise.

J'onn was suddenly regretting his timing. After dismissing his staff for Batman and Wonder Woman, he was up here alone. There was no one there to help him. There was no one there to see him through the pain. There was no one there to make sure he was all right.

What there certainly was was a whole lot of pain. It made the strongest of possible migraines pale in comparison. The effect of the external force on his mind didn't make his head feel like it was splitting in two, it made it feel like it was splitting into a thousand pieces, if not a _million_.

He tried to hold off the screams. He tried to maintain his control, to regain it. He tried to kick the external force out, or at least find out who they were and what they wanted.

He failed on all counts.

The yells were ceaseless as soon as they started, full of horrific amounts of hurt. J'onn could no longer even hold his eyes open, collapsing down to the deck in a rough crumple. All his muscles tensed through the incredible pain.

And it was a pain that didn't show any signs of stopping.

* * *

Flying, it didn't take them long to get back to the Watchtower's main chamber. It made it a lot easier to rise up to the elevated command area too. With the rate and way that J'onn was still screaming, it was a good job too. From the sound of things, he needed their help fast, and needed it badly.

Batman was throwing himself from Wonder Woman's grasp before she had even begun to set him down, landing on the metal with great pose and grace. However, Wonder Woman, for the first time since Batman had come back up to the Watchtower, was not looking at him. The sight of J'onn curled up on the floor and howling his head off in agony saw to that.

"J'onn!" she called out his name as she quickly landed and knelt down at the Martian's side. She knew that she was safe to do so. She knew that Batman would be checking the room, looking to see if there was any sign of someone else in there who was causing this. She also knew that that freed her up to focus on their friend in need.

She was hoping he would respond to her shout, that he would at least be able to tell her what was wrong with him. But she knew from the moment she saw J'onn like that that he was not about to be saying a word at any time in the immediate future.

"Hera, J'onn, what's wrong with you?" Diana softly said, voice full of concern. She wasn't really talking to anyone, it was just her way of voicing the fact that she didn't have a clue what to do. She was no doctor, especially no _Martian_ doctor. Even if she was a physician, she doubted she would know how to help him. She was studying him, looking for any sign of what could be causing him so much harm but she could see nothing there. Whatever was hurting J'onn, there was no visible trace of it. Still, she dare not touch him. J'onn looked ready to thrash out, completely unaware of his surroundings, overtaken by the pain. Wonder Woman could probably take the hit, but it could well be best if she didn't interfere, not without knowing what she was doing.

"It must be a telepathic attack," Batman's voice broke her from her reverie over J'onn.

She quickly looked over to Bruce. He wasn't looking back at them. His attention was fully on the computer systems in the controller area, visibly working away. At least that meant that the area must be clear of any foes. Batman would not have put himself in the more vulnerable, less watchful position otherwise. Therefore, Wonder Woman would not have to waste time fighting the enemy before the efforts truly got underway to make sure J'onn was okay. The Martian was still howling in agony. Wonder Woman knew they had to find some way to ease his pain.

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?" she rather desperately asked Batman, urgency blatant in her tones.

"Unless you've developed even more powers in the last few months, the best if not only way will be to cut off the source," Batman answered her, his own voice remarkably under control given the state one of the few people he would call 'friend' was in. Of course, he did have to speak louder than normal to be heard over J'onn's endless howls of pain. "And I think I've found it."

Batman didn't need her to ask before he was hitting the buttons to put what he had found up on the screen in front of his station. Wonder Woman found herself reflexively standing at the sight of what was before her. What she was seeing was filling her with confusion, but she didn't get the chance to voice it. The suddenly arriving red blur saw to that.

"I heard the screaming!" Flash called out as he halted by Wonder Woman's side, immediately starting to take in what was going on around him. "What's up with the big guy? Is he oka... What the heck is _that _thing?"

Seeing what was on the screen cut Flash's question off. He may be immature at times but Wally West wasn't stupid. He would know that with both Batman and Wonder Woman already at J'onn's side then steps would already be being taken to help their still embroiled friend. He would know that if Batman and Wonder Woman were focusing on what was on that screen, then that would be where he would he would have to focus on too to best help save J'onn.

Wonder Woman quickly looked back from Flash to the screen. What she was seeing was hard to comprehend or understand. It certainly didn't look like something that could be causing the damage it was apparently doing to someone who was usually so tough. It was something out there in the emptiness of space, not something that Wonder Woman was as well versed in as the likes of Green Lantern and Shayera, but her eyes weren't deceiving her.

That thing out there didn't look solid. In fact, it looked like there was nothing really holding it together at all. It reminded Diana of a cloud, albeit a vast and angry one, and not one just made of evaporated water. It had a glow to it, a real vibrant energy pulsing out pure white light, so bright against the black backdrop of space. And it looked like it was close. It wasn't moving, but Wonder Woman, even without knowing what the thing was, was feeling that it was too close to the Watchtower for comfort. J'onn's ongoing enveloping agony was all the proof she needed of that.

"Now isn't the time to speculate unnecessarily, since I've never come across anything like it," Batman answered Flash over J'onn's continuing screams, though Wonder Woman could see that his fingers were still a blur over the keyboard. He was doing something, and from how the screen was unchanged she felt safe in guessing that whatever he was doing was intended to stop whatever that thing was doing to J'onn. However, she needed to hear out his answer before she could get in there and help him. "It seems to made almost entirely of energy. Its the size of a small city but it only has the mass of a few people. But whatever it is, its giving off a lot of telepathic readings, which means that its alive. Its almost like its a non-corporeal mind, which would explain why its latched onto J'onn. He's the closest of all of us to its kind of existence."

"So how do we _unlatch _it?" Wonder Woman quickly pressed Batman for answers. "Whatever its doing to J'onn doesn't seem to be _healthy_."

"It looks like a cloud," Flash commented before Batman could answer. "Can't we just blow it away?"

"That's not as simple as it sounds," Batman was quick to answer Flash, still working away on the console. "We have to make sure we direct it accurately. We have to make sure that we don't make it collapse. We've no idea how that "cloud" will react if it comes into contact with anyone, and it's close enough to the Earth as things are. Keeping it in one piece will make it easier to keep all of it away from the atmosphere; if it breaks it would be so simple for some of it to make its way to the billions below. But you're right, repulsing it is the only choice we have. I doubt we have the time to modify the equipment to cut the telepathic connection directly, and we don't know what effect doing so would have on J'onn. It might wound him even more than doing nothing. We need to push it away and make the increasing distance steadily weaken its connection to him."

"So how do we _do _that?" Wonder Woman stressed the question. Batman may already be implementing whatever plan his brilliant mind would have come up with, but that didn't mean that she was happy to just sit by and watch him work. She would be determined to help fight the aggressor back even if it wasn't so badly hurting her friend. With J'onn in so much pain, that determination was even stronger. As if to firm it up all the more, she glanced back down at the collapsed Martian, who was still writhing and screaming as much as ever, seemingly completely oblivious to everything the others in the room with him were doing.

"So long as you haven't been taking things apart up here in the last months, I installed a device on the Watchtower and its satellites for deflecting meteorites if they come too close to the Earth," Batman answered, still working away. His work clearly required his full, uninterrupted attention. After what he had said moments ago, Wonder Woman figured that what he was doing was very delicate.

"You been watching Armageddon much?" Flash muttered in a rush, but both Batman and Wonder Woman ignored the comment, Batman continuing on with his explanation before Flash had even finished talking.

"It was designed for solid objects, not this type of thing. I have to be incredibly careful targeting it so that we don't break it apart and threaten everyone's lives, J'onn's included. I have to keep the repulsor hitting what part of that cloud is solid, minimising all contact with the vastness of pure energy that makes it up. The problem is it seems to know what I'm trying to do. It's somehow shifting its state. It's _moving _its solid core around within itself quicker than I can adjust the controls."

"Sounds like you need a guy with lightning fingers," Flash jumped in again, only this time far more literally. Before Batman knew it Flash had moved the short distance to be right at his side. Wonder Woman knew that Flash was right; he could hit the buttons quicker than Batman could. The only potential problem would be if Flash knew what he was doing. _No-one _knew the Watchtower systems as well as Batman, even if he hadn't been aboard it for months. He had built the thing, after all. Twice.

"You _know _what you're doing?" Batman said that with a growl and a glare, somehow still hitting the right buttons despite looking away from the screens for a second. Flash's knees looked like caving under it, but his words did not sound that way.

"Sure, just point and click right? Come on, Bats, I can do it. J'onn needs me to do it."

"Fine," Batman growled, making a split second decision with J'onn's ongoing screams the signal that he had no time to think about it. He stepped back, allowing Flash to jump in and take the controls. He took a second to get going, but then he was soon taking over Batman's work hitting the buttons.

However, in just those few seconds of the change over, Wonder Woman could see that the cloud had jumped forwards, even closer to the Watchtower. She suddenly had the impression that Batman's efforts had been what had made it stationary before. He hadn't been able to drive it off due to his slower hands, but he had been keeping it at bay. She had noted earlier that the cloud looked angry. Now she was convinced that it was attempting to surge towards them, towards _J'onn_. She didn't want to think about what might happen if it reached him.

She was distracted as she watched Batman move over to a different one of the control rooms many consoles, booting it up in a second. Rapidly, she was at his side, still nothing she could do directly to help J'onn, whose screams were beginning to weaken but only because their endless nature meant he had less air in his lungs.

"What about you and me? What can we do?" she was asking even as Batman began to get to work again. She hated this almost helpless feeling that she had. This wasn't the kind of threat that she was in her prime fighting. She hated having to keep asking for information and instructions. But it was the hand they had been dealt, and she would be damned before she would stop fighting, whether it was in a way she liked or not.

"We guide the kid," Batman answered. "We watch the sensors for him so that he can focus on the controls. We tell him if a part is breaking free or breaking through. We tell him if the solid core is moving without his notice. We make sure Flash doesn't fail. We're his safety net to prevent anything from going wrong."

"Hey! Fastest man alive, here! I can cope with the buttons!" Flash shouted out, clearly not liking the implication that he may need such help, even if he didn't truly argue about getting it. Wonder Woman noticed just how fast his hands were moving just before she began her part in all of this. She wasn't too happy about her role essentially being observational, but it was all she could do. Batman had the sensor screens up as quickly as humanly possible. Then there was nothing else for it but for the two of them to watch over Flash's desperate attempts to save J'onn.

She lost all track of time as both she and Batman got to work. It was intense stuff. She knew that they couldn't afford to miss _anything _on that screen. Flash was doing a good job, the advantages of his speedy hands compared to Batman's in this situation blatant. However, it was also clear that he needed Batman and Wonder Woman helping him out. His hands were more suited to this than Batman's, but he didn't have the brain to cope with all the things he had to cope with keeping in check. Thankfully, with her and Bruce in place, he didn't need such a brain.

The three of them were working as a perfect team. Both Batman and Wonder Woman were barking out instructions to Flash, whenever they saw a part of that energy cloud trying to curve around Flash's efforts, or whenever a part of it seemed to be tearing loose from the rest. Flash was quick enough to be able to compensate for what they were telling him and keep up his efforts against the rest of the cloud all at the same time.

It was a good job that Wonder Woman didn't really sweat, otherwise she had the impression that buckets would be pouring off of her right now, despite the complete lack of physical effort on her part. J'onn was still screaming, and time was ticking away. She did not know how long he could continue to take this, how much longer he could stand the pain before permanent damage was done. She didn't know if such damage had been done already. That meant that the tension was unbearable, especially with how stubborn this cloud appeared to be.

"They sure don't take a hint, do they?" Flash shouted out, despite continuing working. Wonder Woman spotted the twitch of Batman's brow, knowing he felt like chastising Flash for talking when he should be completely concentrating on what he was doing. However, she also knew that Batman held it off so as not to cause even more distractions. Instead he merely blasted out more instructions for Flash, instructions were quickly followed.

At last, Wonder Woman saw the cloud begin to move back. At long last, they were starting to push it away. At long last, what they were doing was starting to work. Hitting the latest target Batman had identified with the repulsors had finally overcome the cloud's stubborn resilience. It had finally beaten through its defence and resistance. It was finally starting to push the cloud back. Slowly admittedly, very slowly, but it was the first sign that what they were doing was actually working.

The cloud didn't look too happy about it either. Even without the usual forms of expression on it, that much was clear. It flashed even brighter white, almost as if throwing even more energy into keeping the repulsor beams at bay, as if trying even harder to get beyond them and get to J'onn. As if to signify an added effort, J'onn's screams got even louder again. Whatever that cloud was, it was really starting to make Diana angry for what it was doing to her friend.

"Flash, there's a chunk trying to get over the top!" she called out as she spotted a chunk of the energy cloud attempting to sneak around Flash's efforts, voice displaying that anger.

"I've got it, I've got it!" Flash returned indeed hitting the buttons. The chunk Wonder Woman had spotted was forced back as Flash sent a blast of the repulsors its way. The chunk sunk back into the main body of the cloud like a petrified animal.

But, as Flash continued rapidly altering away at the repulsor controls, that wasn't it. The cloud was getting pushed further away. It was going back more and more, actually speeding up in its enforced retreat. It was virtually to the point were it was only taking up half as much of the screen as it had been before the start of all of their efforts against it. Most importantly though, J'onn's screaming was lessening too.

The plan was working. They were doing it.

But Wonder Woman should have learned her lesson from a few minutes ago. Plans could so easily go wrong, and they so often did when you least expected them too. Right now, unfortunately, proved to be no different.

"Flash, to the left! Bottom left! And there's another chunk coming middle right!" Wonder Woman hollered out yet another string of instructions. To her, it seemed that the cloud was getting desperate. They were forcing it away from J'onn. They were forcing it away from the Martian it seemed so desperate to take hold off, forcing it to stop hurting him, whether that was a deliberate act or an unfortunate side effect. She was determined to make this last desperate move of it's prove futile. She was determined to guide Flash into stopping it.

"I see them! Consider them toasted!" Flash gave the confirmation that he had it, sounding quite pleased with himself for their actions. However, Batman suddenly shouted out in a way that definitely didn't share in Flash's optimistic pleasure.

"Wait! It's a decoy! They're coming fro–!"

Batman couldn't finish his sentence. There just wasn't the time. It was remarkable how quick a being of pure energy could move with nothing keeping it at bay.

What little Batman had managed to say proved to be absolutely right. The cloud had deceived them. Whatever it was, it must be fairly smart, smart enough to trick them like it had. The two assaulting strands that Wonder Woman had warned Flash about darted back into the main body seconds before Flash could hit them with the repulsor beams. It did so just late enough that the heroes hadn't the time to react to its true assault. Batman had tried to warn them, but there hadn't even been time to do that, let alone react to it.

A huge chunk of the energy blasted forward from pretty much everywhere that Flash _wasn't _keeping it at bay. There was no stopping it. It completely broke through all of their defences. It even managed to break clean through the Watchtower's hull without even scratching it. Being made of mainly pure energy, the solid barrier seemed to have no effect on slowing it, although all electric equipment in its path did start to spark and blow.

There was only the time for Wonder Woman's eyes to widen in horror as the pure whiteness suddenly enveloped the entire control room, not just J'onn. Herself, Batman and Flash were all caught in it too. What was more, once it had them, Wonder Woman found that she could move. Suddenly she was filled with an instant pain of her own. Suddenly she knew what J'onn was going through as her mind felt like it was being shred to pieces from the inside.

But it was all very sudden, _very _instantaneous_._ It only lasted a second before there was nothing left, before she completely whited out.

It only lasted a second before she was completely out of it. There wasn't even the time to curse their mistake before her mind completely shut down.

There wasn't even time for one last glance at Bruce.

* * *

Green Lantern had been with Flash when they had heard the scream. They had both instantly recognised it as coming from J'onn up in the control room. Naturally, they had both immediately wanted to go see what was happening and do whatever they could to help. Being so much quicker than him, GL had let Flash go on ahead, so that J'onn could get help as soon as possible.

But GL had been following on as quickly as he could. And he wasn't the only one. Several other heroes had heard the scream too. GL had wasted no time in telling the more junior or lesser powered members to stay where they were or to get the civilian workers clear of the potential danger zone, but he had given that order on the run. The rest of his fellow Leaguers were swept up in his wake, darting alongside him towards the control room as fast as they could all go. Shayera just happened to be the one who wound up right at his side on the charge.

They arrived just in time to see the sight that none of them had wished to see, but too late to do anything to stop it. The dazzling white light emerged from nowhere. It took hold of all four heroes in the room; Flash, J'onn, Wonder Woman and the returned Batman. And then it was gone, disappearing like a snake slithering clean through the wall, leaving nothing but wrecked electrical systems behind it.

As well as the now crumpled bodies of all four heroes.

As soon as that light had ceased to surround them, all four Founders had collapsed to the deck without a sound. None of them were moving. None of them were making any noise. None of them were displaying any sign of life.

John Stewart may have been pretty much avoiding Shayera for the past weeks and months as he desperately battled with his heart to try and figure out what it was in this world that he truly wanted, but in that moment none of that mattered. He couldn't stop himself from immediately looking down to her when he saw what could well be the end of four of his closest friends, already feeling the despair beginning to fill him. He found that Shayera was already looking straight back at him in precisely the same manner. Other heroes from their troop had already rushed forward, folks like Green Arrow charging in to check for signs of life in the still bodies of the four Founders, but John and Shayera were both equally frozen to the spot.

"It can't be..." she virtually whispered out all her fears in three words. GL very definitely shared the sentiment. He didn't want it to be true either.

But he also didn't see any way out of this. All four just looked so _lifeless_.

"They're gone," he whispered himself, so softly that he doubted she could hear him, his voice cracking with grief.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_Don't worry, I've not being a giant douche/turd sandwich with this. This is _NOT _the end, by any means. Stay tuned. All will eventually be revealed. In the meantime, review/follow/favourite as applicable, my good chums._


	6. Chapter 5: Darkest Light

**Chapter 5: Darkest Light **

"I saw you on the news again, you know," Lois commented as she took a swig from her cup. "You and you're superhero pals, out in the Pacific."

Superman had met up with her almost straight after he had teleported back down to Earth from the Watchtower. If not for the unforeseen event up there, he would have done so immediately, but Batman's sudden return slowed him down. He had taken a moment post-teleport to come to terms with it, to overcome the surprise he had had when he had gone up to the Watchtower and found Batman beaming up seconds later. His talk with Bruce could have perhaps gone better, but he was the same old Batman. It really had been just like old times again. It made Superman realise just how much he had missed his friend these last few months while he was away.

But no matter how happy he was about Batman returning to the Justice League, he didn't want to have Bruce Wayne occupying his mind right now. Now was one of those rare opportunities he got to spend some quality time with the single most important person there had ever been in his life. The life of a superhero didn't exactly offer up a lot of free time for this kind of thing, especially when said superhero was as powerful and public as he was. Now that he had a chance for said time, he didn't want to spend a second of it on any one else. He wanted to make the most of this time that he had.

It didn't help that Lois Lane, award winning reporter, was hardly out of demand herself. There was always something that she was busy working on. In fact, she had already told him that she would have to run off after not too long to go and get a story finished off for the morning papers. That meant that Superman knew he had to make the most of what time they had, even more than normal.

Of course, being such a well known public figure, especially one who was so loved and revered as he was, the options of what they could do with their time together were limited. They couldn't do a lot of the kind of things that normal couples did, not without wanting to spend the entire time swamped by adoring fans, mostly his but some of hers too. That was why right now they had wound up on another picnic watching over the city of Metropolis. Of course, Superman had flown them to a different place than he had done the last time. _That one_ hadn't been the most enjoyable or pleasant time. Superman was determined that today would go a lot better.

"It was a real mess after so much water hit but we think we've got everything sorted. It may take a while but people's lives should start getting back on track fairly quickly," he returned. "I'm surprised they got cameras out there so fast."

"If I've taught you anything I'd have thought it'd be that some of us mere mortals can be pretty good at keeping up with you," Lois rather cheekily responded, with Superman quick to pick up on her true meaning. Such thoughts made him blush. He really was, as folks so often told him, just a big, innocent boy scout. "Besides, the world of public journalism has to be fast, otherwise we'd always miss all of the juicy stories. I'd have thought you'd have learned that by now. We've been together for long enough."

Superman bit his tongue at that one, actually feeling a pang of guilt from deep within him. He still hadn't told Lois the whole truth. She couldn't know just how resonant her statement truly was. It may have been years since they had first met, he may have known for a huge chunk of that that he loved her, _she _may have known for a huge chunk of that that he loved her, but he still hadn't told her that Superman and her Daily Planet partner Clark Kent were one and the same. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. Not knowing helped to keep her safe, and Superman had no idea what he would do without her.

"It's because I prefer our quiet moments. Like this one," Superman said instead of what he was really thinking, not that those words weren't true too. "I prefer it when I have you all to myself."

Lois let out a quick, short laugh. "You old smoothy. Who'd have ever guessed that a guy who's stronger than a living tank would be a hopeless romantic at heart? I hope you don't talk like that in front of all those crazy villains of yours."

"No, but I don't exactly turn into Batman with them either," Superman answered with a shrug. "I just save it all up for you. There's no one else that I'd ever want to sweet talk like I do you. You're one of a kind, Lois. I'm really glad I have you."

"OK, flattery will get you everywhere, but stop it now because you know that we're gonna have to rap this up before too long and I'd hate for _anything _to _come up_ and delay me," Lois again responded in a way that made Superman blush, this time very visibly. Still, she did lean in and kiss him, which he returned until the second that she pulled away. "You just make sure that the world isn't coming to an end later on and then come say all that to me again. I promise that it'll be worth your while."

"I–"

Superman's reply was cut off before it had really begun. After what Lois had only just said, it seemed that someone out there had a _really _ironic sense of timing. His earpiece commlink had just gone off. Someone from the Justice League was trying to contact him, and he knew from experience that that almost certainly meant trouble. He could see Lois realise why he had suddenly stopped talking, along with the look on her face that followed. She spoke no words verbally, but her body language made what she was thinking obvious. It was just typical that the Justice League would need him_ now_. It also made it pretty clear that she was thinking that this interruption had better be important. He was sure that it would be, and there was no way on this Earth that Superman wouldn't answer the call, but deep down he was still feeling the exact same way.

"Superman here," he said, opening up the desired channel to the other hero who was trying to contact him. "What is it?"

"Superman, it's Shayera," the voice of the woman formerly known as Hawkgirl spoke directly into his ear so that he alone could hear it. Immediately Superman could tell that something was _definitely _wrong. Shayera's voice was a dead give-away. There was elements of urgency to it, of action, but those elements were small. They were very much dwarfed by something that Superman didn't like hearing there. It made his own shoulders drop in sudden fearful expectation, hearing all the signs of grief in Shayera's tones. "You need to come back to the Watchtower."

"What is it? What's happened?" Superman desperately asked as it seemed that Shayera could not say any more than that. Her tone made him want to ask "_Who?_" but he resisted. Doing so would be like confirming that one of his friends was dead already. He didn't want to do that, not until there was no alternative, and unless he was told otherwise, he would hang onto those alternatives. He couldn't afford to get carried away based just on a tone of voice.

"Just... Just get back up here," Shayera very simply answered him, telling him nothing. It definitely sounded like she couldn't bring herself to say any more than that. That point was made all the more clear as Shayera clicked off the comm before he could say anything more.

That made Superman's shoulders droop further. In a split second, his mood had completely changed. He looked up to Lois, who was gazing straight at him. The change in his body language had brought a very concerned look to her face. She might not be a Leaguer herself, she might not have met the vast majority of them, but she was still a compassionate woman, an empathic one. Anything that could sadden Superman could sadden her too.

And there was one other Leaguer who she knew, who she had once loved until discovering the truth of his identity. She still cared for deeply for Bruce Wayne. Not as much as she cared for Superman, but she dearly wouldn't want anything to have happened to him.

"I don't know yet," he told her before she could even ask him what was wrong, virtually reading the question in her mind. "But I've got to go. They wouldn't tell me what's happened, but they didn't sound happy. I've got to go find out."

"Go," Lois instructed him, giving him a peck on the cheek. Superman was grateful to her for that, for her own sudden change in body language. He knew he had to go. Lois not making that difficult for him showed that they really were perfect together. "I'll make my own way back. You make sure everyone's all right."

"I always do," Superman tried to lighten the mood, but it did nothing to help out either of them. At that he stood, touching a hand to his comm again. "Superman to Watchtower. Bring me up."

And then, with the flash of light, he was gone. He dearly hoped that when he arrived things wouldn't be as bad as he feared.

The evening had started so well, too.

* * *

Others had not been so ready to give up on the fallen four as he had been. GL was chastising himself for doing so so easily, but that didn't change his opinion on things. He was still sure that he had just watched his friends die.

But that didn't mean that he wouldn't still try to save them. Every one of them there knew that the only hope for Batman, Wonder Woman, J'onn and Flash was to get them to the infirmary and the medics, fast. With Flash out of action and Superman absent, that meant that Green Lantern was their best chance. With his power ring he could sweep them all up together and fly them away as one, so that was exactly what he did.

Shayera for one had clearly wanted to help him, but there was the small matter of that thing out there that had caused this to happen in the first place. They couldn't just ignore that, no matter what had just happened. They needed all possible hands on deck to make sure no one else wound up in the same state as Wonder Woman and the rest. They needed everyone they could get to get the computers working again, or at least enough to make sure everyone else was safe. That meant that no matter what Shayera or the others may want or feel regarding their four friends, getting them to possible help was Green Lantern's task alone.

And so he surged through the Watchtower's corridors as fast as he possibly could, the green bubble containing his friends carefully whipping around behind him. He made record time. Before he knew it he was setting all four of them down in separate beds as gently as he could in a hurry.

"What happened?" one of the doctor's was saying in a hurry, rushing over to see what was happening the moment Green Lantern entered the room. John recognised her as Doctor Susan Conway, a civilian medic who had been hired by the Justice League some time ago. Over those months she had proved herself more than able, for example being the one who had made sure that Shayera was able to fly again after she had been shot in the wing months ago.

"We don't know," GL rushed through his unfortunate answer. "_Something... _got them all. Some bright light burst into the Watchtower, shined around them and then... _this _happened."

He knew that his answer must have sounded silly. However, Doctor Conway was too committed to her duty to make any kind of comment about it.

"Then we're going in blind," Conway reacted to what she was told, her nurses already beginning to gather around her. She was stood over Batman's bed, with other doctor's sweeping forward to look after the others. Green Lantern knew why she had selected Gotham's protector as the one to examine. He was the one of the four without powers to help speed up any possible healing process. More specifically, and more worrisomely, Batman was also the one least likely to survive..._whatever _had happened to them. On paper anyway. "We need readings on all their vitals, stat! Let's find out what we're dealing with people! After all the times they've saved out sorry hides, we have to do whatever we have to do to save these heroes!"

Green Lantern wanted to stay close, he wanted to help, but he knew that he would just wind up getting in the way. That was why he stood back, letting the experts get to work. However, he couldn't bring himself to leave and to check in on the efforts of Shayera and the rest. He had to stay here. He had to find out if Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest were going to be okay, or if he had been right earlier.

He dearly continued to hope that he was wrong about their fate. He just still couldn't believe anything different after what he had seen.

* * *

Superman could see the commotion going on all around him from the second he re-materialised aboard the Watchtower. There were plenty of people up there in the control centre, frantically working away. What exactly they were doing he couldn't be sure, but that wasn't what truly caught his attention.

That distinction went to Green Lantern, or more specifically what he was carrying courtesy of his ring. Superman just caught a glimpse of them all before they disappeared down the many twisting corridors of the Watchtower. Flash. J'onn. Wonder Woman. Batman.

And all of them looked _lifeless_.

Now Superman understood why Shayera had sounded so distraught over the comm. It couldn't be. It just couldn't. Not them. Not any of them... Not Diana... Not Bruce...

It took a ridiculous amount of effort, but Superman forced his mind off of all that. He had to, at least for now. He had to make sure that everyone else was also going to survive it, that nobody else needed his help first. Then he could worry about the other four.

He looked back up to the control centre. With John already gone with the fallen four, it was easier to turn his attention back up there. Shayera was one of the Leaguers there at work. Mr Terrific was there too, as were Captain Atom, Green Arrow and the Atom Ray Palmer, all either furiously working the computers or else furiously trying to fix them. Yet more were up top too, the likes of Black Canary, Zatanna and Booster Gold, but they were all stood back as if spectating, keeping out of the way of those working on the controls and ready to step in as and when they were called upon. That was not something Superman could do.

"Shayera, Mr. Terrific, what can I do?" he called up there to them all, hoping not to break their concentration for too long. Shayera seemed to take a second to even realise she was being spoken too, she was so absorbed in what she was doing. Superman dearly hoped that that wasn't an attempt to forget any recent grief. In the end, Mr. Terrific beat her to speaking anyway, sounding remarkably in control. No wonder he was the Justice League's official co-coordinator.

"Nothing yet. We've got this. I'll call you if something comes up that needs your talents."

Superman saw what Mr. Terrific was really saying. There was nothing he could do there that couldn't be done by somebody else. They all knew that Superman's two closest friends in the entire world were most probably Batman and Wonder Woman, and he hardly disliked J'onn and Flash either. Despite the fact that they would _all_ be feeling the desire to go check up on them all, they could also recognise that for Superman that need was probably greater. What they were doing was offering him the chance to get to the Infirmary and to make sure that his worst fears weren't a reality. That wasn't a chance he was about to turn down.

With the others all so clearly busy, Superman did not distract them with any more words. Instead, he was simply gone. Flash wasn't the only one with super speed, and Superman utilised his to the full now. Before he knew it, Superman had reached the space station's medical bay.

The sight that met him there was hardly one that he would describe as pleasant. He could see all four of his stricken friends laid out prone in a string of gurneys, doctors and nurses dashing all about between them, looking incredibly hurried and busy. Things clearly were not good. Looking at the potentially devastating chaos meant that he had not even noticed GL stood in the doorway until he heard the other man speak.

"It's been like this since I got them here," John Stewart said, voice so flat it could be a pancake. "I still haven't heard any word on their... _conditions_."

"What happened?" Superman couldn't help but ask the question. No doubt it had been asked many times already, no doubt GL was probably asking himself it endlessly in his mind, but it didn't matter. Superman _had_ to know.

GL shook his head though. "We don't know. None of us do. They were up in the control centre, alone. The rest of us only arrived to see the very end, the flash of light and then..._this_. They're all working on the 'what', the 'who' and the 'how' up in the Monitor Womb right now, I think, but I couldn't leave these four here. I just couldn't. Not like this..."

Despite his own growing feelings of despair, Superman could not let his friend suffer alone. He laid a comforting hand on GL's shoulder. "I understand. If it turns out that there's anything either of us can do to help up at the controls, they'll call. Until then, _this _is where we're both needed. We have to look out for our friends."

GL opened his mouth as if to respond but no words got the chance to come out. He got very much distracted. Superman was too. It was at that moment that one of the Doctor's came walking over to them, clearly ready to deliver _some _news. Her fellows, however, remained busy with the fallen four. Superman held his breath, the tension incredible. It may have only taken seconds for Doctor Conway to speak after they had noticed her start walking over, but to Superman it felt like countless aeons had gone by.

"I don't quite know how to say this. They're technically alive, all of them."

Superman felt like jumping for joy. Then he heard Conway use the word 'but' and knew that he had to wait before celebrating. It was also then that he truly recognised the word 'technically' in the last sentence, having been too happy to truly hear it before.

"But that's not the end of the story like we might have hoped. We've got regular heartbeats from all of them, respiratory activity too. The problem is we're finding no signs of mental activity in any of them. It's as if whatever happened to them has left them all completely brain dead. We're hooking them all up to life support machines right now so that the rest of their organs don't start shutting down, even though that isn't even looking necessary just yet. With all the crazy things that happen around here I wouldn't put it past them somehow recovering on their own, or the rest of you finding some way to bring them back. But if this wasn't the Justice League I was talking about, I would say they were gone."

Superman had been right not to start celebrating. The four were alive, but that was about it. He had to tell himself that it was still too early days, that Doctor Conway was right and that with the Justice League _everything _could change. He had to tell himself that there was still hope.

"I'm sorry," Conway continued. "But we'll keep doing all that we can."

"Thank you, Doctor," Superman replied for both of them, but he was interrupted by his buzzing comm before he could say any more. Clearly GL's was going off too.

"Superman, GL you need to get back up here now," Shayera's voice rang out to both of them via their respective devices. "Things are happening up here. Very _bad_ things."

* * *

"The wiring's shot in there. There'll be no fixing that one any time soon," the Atom announced as he leapt out from the innards of the console, growing back to his normal size as he did so.

"Then the rest of them will have to do," Shayera was quick to point out. There was no time to waste scrambling around trying to make emergency repairs to gear that just wasn't going to be working again in their short time frame. Four of the Justice League's best were already at least in a serious condition right now. She and the others had to make sure that whatever had caused it was dealt with before it could do any more damage, and they had to do it fast. It was hard, but all personal feelings had to be cast aside until that was done.

For the five of them up at the controls, anyway. GL had already gone with the stricken foursome to the Infirmary, and they had just sent Superman after them too. No doubt quite a few other members of the Justice League were highly affected by what had happened and would also have to know if they were going to be okay. With the possible exception of Batman, the group were all well loved and respected by everyone, and Shayera knew first-hand that the main reason that Batman wasn't as well was because he didn't want to be, preferring intimidation to companionship in the vast majority of cases. Hell, Shayera herself would certainly be being badly affected by all this if it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't afford to be. She was the only one of the seven Founders left active up here. She had to take control, for the rest of the League's sake. All the Founders were looked up to as the leaders, as the bravest and the best. _One _of them had to see the rest through things, this moment included. Right now, that meant her.

"I reckon I'm getting something!" Green Arrow called out from beside her. He, like her, was working away at a console in the area that was remarkably undamaged – physically at least. Shayera's system in particular seemed corrupted. She was having to try and create all kinds of workarounds to access the systems. They hadn't even managed to find out yet _what _it was out there that had so damaged this chamber and the four who had been in it, let alone began to deal with it. Mr. Terrific, Captain Atom and the Atom had been busy at work trying to fix the devices and hardwire in new systems, while Shayera and Green Arrow got to work on the two consoles they had managed to get booted up again. At last, it sounded like they were getting somewhere.

"What is it?" Shayera asked in a hurry. "What have you got?"

"I reckon I found the fiend. It's still out there in space, not far off the hull. Visual should be coming up any second," Green Arrow answered her. That was a start at least. Other than that flash of light, none of them had even seen this thing yet. Shayera's first thought was that that light had been a weapon of some kind from some new alien invader, but the possibility did occur to her that the light _was _the invader. She had seen enough out there in her time after all, being a detective and a spy from a far distant planet. It wasn't an impossible notion to her.

But if the light was the attacker then, despite how it had looked, after what it had done it was the darkest light she had ever seen.

"Wait, wait, it's moving!" Green Arrow suddenly called out again. "I don't believe it, it's heading for Earth!"

As he shouted that, Shayera's system finally came back to life. She was finally in, immediately punching up the scanners. She saw instantly what Green Arrow meant. Mr. Terrific, the Captain and the Atom were all leaning over either her or Green Arrow's shoulders to get a closer look.

It looked just like a cloud, but from her readouts Shayera knew that it was no ordinary cloud. It was indeed made up of energy, with a relatively small, solid core. And it did indeed seem to be alive.

And it had most definitely begun to move off towards the Earth.

After what had gone before, after seeing what for all she knew could still have been the deaths of Flash, J'onn, Batman and Wonder Woman, Shayera was not going to let that happen. As far as she was concerned this thing had already proved that it was hostile. She may have been an alien herself, but the Earth was now very much her home, humanity her adoptive race. She would do everything in her power. She would do everything she could to protect them. The thought of them being endangered by this thing was already getting her mad up even more than the fall of the four heroes had already done.

"Can we stop it? Can we destroy it?" she called out for suggestions. She could see on her screen that while this cloud wasn't the quickest moving thing that she had ever seen it was still going to be hitting the Earth's atmosphere pretty snappily. They had to act fast. As Green Arrow had had more time to study this cloud thanks to his quicker working terminal, that meant he was now in the best position to play the part of tactician.

"Looks like Bats and the others were trying to drive it off with some sort of repulsor beam," Green Arrow began, words tumbling out of him in a mad dash. "We could try it again now, but it didn't exactly work for them. We might have to do this the old fashioned way and get back down to Earth."

Shayera's mind was racing. She was making a plan. Green Arrow was right. There wasn't really time to utilise the Watchtower against it. But that didn't mean that such time couldn't be bought.

"Right, here's what we do," she began instructing, making the others all start listening in very intently. "Mr. Terrific, declare an Omega level alert. All heroes you think have a chance in helping us drive that thing off need to beam down to the Earth immediately. We have to keep it away from the civilians and try and drive it back into space. _Somehow_. Arrow, no offence but I think you'll be pretty useless down there. I doubt a bow will do anything against that and you don't exactly have any powers to help out either. You stay up here with anyone in a similar situation. Do everything you can with the Watchtower to get that thing away from here. And get the all the League's magicians organised. I don't know how close to it they'll have to be but we could likely use their help with this."

"No offence taken, Ma'am," Green Arrow returned with a tip of his hat. "Me, T and the rest'll do our best. Good luck down below."

"Same to you," Shayera said back. "We're all going to need it."

She didn't wait any longer after that. A glance back at her screen had already told her that that energy cloud was now starting to touch air. More, from its trajectory the computer was predicting its likely destination; Metropolis. One of the biggest population centres on the entire planet. That all but confirmed it for her. This thing was sentient, and it was aggressive.

And it would pay.

With a flutter of her wings she hopped down from the control area, landing exquisitely by the teleporter pads. She had hardly touched down before she had her comm active and was warning GL and Superman. They were on their way, but the likes of Captain Atom, Booster Gold and Stargirl were already arriving at the pad around her. There was no point in waiting for the other two Founders. They could catch the next ride down.

"All right Arrow!" Shayera called back up to the comm area, determined to get back down there and stop this thing, _now_. "Energize!"

She just hoped that they were in time, that there was actually something that they could do. That the people could still be saved.

And of course, that a certain four were not lost to this thing already.

* * *

**_A/N:_**

_I know a heck of a lot of you were hoping for some answers, but no, there weren't really any here. Don't worry though friends! You'll get them soon enough! This tale just has more layers to it than that main one that need telling. T__une in next week, though. There might just be something, or_ _some_one_,__ in Chapter 6 that you were hoping to hear of again today..._

_In the meantime, let me know what you think via more reviews, favourites and follows!_


	7. Chapter 6: Out of Body Experience

**Chapter 6: Out of Body Experience**

Slowly her eyes began to flutter their way open. Slowly she began to wake up. Her head was still killing her, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been in that brief second before she had passed out.

Wonder Woman pushed herself up gingerly. She still had no idea what had happened to her, but she was as determined as ever that she would not be beat. That was why she leapt up into the air as soon as she could, fists held at the ready for whatever may be thrown at her. In that same instant, facing the unknown, she took in all of her surroundings.

This certainly wasn't the Watchtower any more. She had no idea where exactly it was, but the Watchtower it was not. It didn't look like any place that she had ever seen on the Earth before, either. For one thing, she had never seen rocks floating several feet in the air down there. The glistening sunlight wasn't so starkly red anywhere there either, even during the most photogenic of sunsets. Even the sands beneath them looked grayer and felt courser and than the norm. However, particularly with no signs of any aggressors around her, it was what was laid in those sands that truly caught her eye.

It was the others. J'onn. Flash. _Bruce_. They were all there, and they were all laid out prone. Whatever had hither, whatever had brought them all here, it had got _all_ of them good. However, none of them were waking up as she had done. Wonder Woman had not forgotten that her Gods-given endurance could easily have lead to her recovering from whatever happened quicker than the rest. She just chose to ignore that fact. She had to make sure for herself that all of the others were all right the old fashioned way.

That was why she flew straight back down into the sands and to Batman's side. It had to be him that she went to first. She cared about the other two deeply, but she _loved _Batman, regardless of his flaws. Perhaps even because of them.

"Bruce!" she called out his name as she landed in the sands beside him, feeling the grains warmth against her knees as she rapidly knelt by his head. She gently took his cowled face between her two hands, softly turning his head so that she was looking him right in the lenses that sheathed his eyes. "Come on Bruce, wake up!"

She scrambled to try and find a pulse, thoughts of the worst scrambling through her brain. Things weren't helped by the fact his strong armour stopped her from finding any veins, not without tearing his suit to shreds. What she did notice, though, was that he was still warm. That was a good sign.

Just seconds later, and just before his neck guard was about to be torn loose, Wonder Woman was feeling great relief as she heard the sounds of him stirring.

"I'm here, Princess," he said with a growl, obviously instantly recognising that it was her leant over him. He spoke softly, but there was enough to it to make it clear that he was relatively unharmed. His gauntlets moved up, gently removing her hands from his face as he pushed himself up to a kneeling position of his own. Wonder Woman kept a steadying arm around him regardless. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Bruce," she quickly assured him, though she couldn't miss the irony. She was the one with the healing of the gods, and he, the mere mortal, was worried about her. It was typically Batman. Granted, he had enough compassion in him to care about anyone who could have been in danger, no matter how much he hid it, but Wonder Woman still felt almost like there had been more to his words with it being her they were said to. That made her smile. It helped her to momentarily forget that the two of them still hadn't had the reunion she had been waiting for, that he still didn't know if he was ready to move forward, _or not_. Then she remembered that this was not all about the two of them right now. No matter how much she cared for Bruce, she wasn't about to abandon the mission, or her friends. This was about more than just the two of them. She was an Amazon warrior, for Hera's sake. "Come on, we have to check on the others."

But, barely had she said the words than it turned out that they didn't have to act on them. They didn't even have to stand, let alone move over to where the other two lay. Barely had Wonder Woman said the words than Flash was speaking up behind them.

"Man, what hit me? I feel like I just took a double decker bus to the face... Woah, big guy, you've stopped screaming!"

Wonder Woman quickly looked across the sands. Just as what she was hearing implied, both of her two friends had woken up too. Whatever had happened to them, they had all made it here intact, wherever here was. And, as Flash had pointed out, J'onn had stopped screaming. He was still pretty much laid out flat, his face still looked twisted in pain, but he was conscious and his screams had gone. Now, not even a whimper was escaping him.

"The attack on my mind has..._lessened_," J'onn answered, not turning to look at the others. His voice sounded strained. While Wonder Woman's headache had now passed, clearly the influence of the energy cloud on J'onn's telepathic brain had not gone completely. Wonder Woman could therefore only assume that it was still relatively close by. That put her right back on guard again.

"Glad to hear it. Now where the heck are we?" Flash, typically, was able to fling himself up to his feet fast. With his speed, he even had time to run around the area, having a scout about to see what he could find before anyone else could respond. By the time he halted back in front of them, though, all that he had achieved was to kick up a miniature dust devil of sand. "This place looks totally wacky to me. _I_ certainly haven't been here before, except maybe once on a trip I took in college..."

That last comment was left forgotten. Even Wonder Woman had learned enough of Man's World now to know what he meant, and to know that he wasn't being serious. J'onn still wasn't moving, but both Wonder Woman and Batman had returned to their feet. Diana moved over to stand by Wally's side as he continued looking around, though Batman stayed where he was, studying the surroundings his own way. Wonder Woman left him to it. Flash's direct action approach was more her style anyway.

"I don't know it either," she answered him. "All I can say is a lot of places where we're _not_."

"_How _did we get here anyway?" Flash carried on with the questions. "Last thing I remember we were safe and sound in our space orbitter. How the heck did a flying light bulb get us out of there?"

"It didn't," Batman spoke up, so unexpectedly and forcefully that Flash almost leapt out of his skin. Wonder Woman quickly turned to face Bruce again. His back was to them at first as he stared out at the expanses around them, but that didn't last as he carried on. "I think we're still aboard the Watchtower. Or at least, I think our _bodies _are."

"You're not... Are you saying that we... Are we _dead_?" Flash stumbled around the words. He clearly didn't want to think about that. Wonder Woman didn't particularly want to either, not that she thought that it was true. It didn't take long for Batman to assuage any of Flash's fears.

"No, we're alive. Or at least we should be, so long as there wasn't too much damage to the Watchtower. We know that the cloud was made of practically pure energy, we know that it possesses strong telepathic abilities. I think that it somehow stripped our thought processes, our consciousnesses _away _from our physical forms. I think that when the energy of its light surrounded us, it somehow absorbed our minds. Right now, what we're seeing... I believe that its a projection, an image. So are our own forms here, all the gear that's come here with us, that's just our way of comprehending all this in a way we'd understand. I believe we're _inside _that cloud. Or at least, our thoughts are."

"Okay... You lost me at stripping," Flash muttered. He did indeed look confused. Wonder Woman wasn't overly clear on things herself, not that Batman hadn't done a decent job of explaining his point. It was just that what he was saying sounded so unbelievable. She couldn't see how it was possible. She didn't particularly want to. The idea of having her mind ripped out of her body was not one that she wanted to contemplate, especially as Batman was yet to make any comment about how to get them back. She certainly didn't know a way to do it.

"Batman is correct," J'onn softly groaned from the sands at their feet, drawing all attention back to him. After all, it was the first thing he had said since his _incident _had begun. He took a steadying breath before continuing, though. Wonder Woman knelt down by his side as he did so, as if telling him not to use excessive effort to make himself heard. Flash quickly followed her lead. Batman stayed exactly where he was, but he was always listening closely.

"Right, I know he's frustratingly right almost all of the time, but how is that possible _this _time? What he's saying's crazy!" Flash argued in J'onn's break between words.

"It was believed to just be a myth," J'onn began again, ignoring Flash's comment. Wonder Woman took his hand to further help him through this, as the big Martian was clearly still in a lot of pain. "My people have spoken of such a thing since ages long past. The Transcendence, they called it. It was said that if Martians died whilst in telepathic communication with one another, then there was a link keeping their thoughts in existence. Provided the mind wasn't instantly destroyed during death, it would remain connected with the others in the telepathic link. They would literally become beings of the mind alone. They would become thoughts consisting solely of the energy such thoughts create."

Once again, J'onn paused to recapture some much needed breath. Flash looked ready to jump in with another witty comment when presented the opportunity, but Wonder Woman took the chance from him with a shake of her head directed his way. She loved Wally's humour; it helped stop the darkness of what they all did from becoming overwhelming. However, she knew that now wasn't the time for it. They had to at least hear J'onn out first. With Flash taking her hint, J'onn was then able to continue on as soon as he felt able.

"It was long believed possible, but it was also never tested. The process of Transcendence was always said to work best with multiple minds contributing to the telepathic connection. But such numbers would never volunteer to sacrifice their physical existence on merely the chance that the Transcendence was real. However, there is no longer any doubts. It is not just a rumour. It cannot be. This energy '_cloud_' is the proof. It is the amalgamation of many deceased beings. It is the amalgamation of scores of bodiless minds. As Batman suggested, this place where we have found ourselves is an illusion they have created to give their realm a sense of normality, to make it so they can cope, comprehend and live as close to how they all did before they died. We are not alone in here."

"Wait, there's other _Martians _in here?" Flash blurted out in surprise. Wonder Woman never had the chance to keep him quiet this time. He jumped in before J'onn had even begun his latest pause.

"That is correct," J'onn answered, looking as if he had tried to begin a nod before deciding better of it. "I can sense them on my mind. And there's more than I can single out to count at this time."

"But I thought you guys are... were... are... _Whatever _they are, your lot loved peace didn't they? What're they doing attacking us all, even if they are just creepy brains these days? What are they doing attacking _you _like this?" Flash jumped in again. Wonder Woman wouldn't have stopped him this time. It was a question that had occurred to her as well, a very important one. The only answer that came to mind was not one that she particularly enjoyed.

"It was them that caused my pain to be debilitating aboard the Watchtower, yes," J'onn gave the actual answer. "But it was all in an attempt to warn me. I told you that my people believed Transcendence to be a myth. This is the first time such an event is ever known to have happened. They are still learning about the powers they have in their new form and way of life, especially regarding connecting to an outsider. They are still learning just how strong so many minds combined can be, particularly against someone else so attuned to telepathy. They harmed me by accident, overwhelming my mind. They are still doing so, albeit not quite to the same extent, though that could just be because we're now a lot _closer_. I haven't the strength compared to them to break through and tell them to stop."

"But why did they bring us in here? What are they trying to warn you about?" Wonder Woman couldn't help herself this time. She got in before Flash could. She had to hear the words. She had to know if they had another major fight on their hands. She had to know if she had guessed right.

However, it wasn't J'onn who answered this time. Batman did it for him.

"The Imperium."

Wonder Woman hadn't noticed, but during the talk Batman had walked over to stand right by their side. Right now he was looking down at them, and Wonder Woman could not stop herself from looking right back up at him. She _definitely _did not like where this was going.

"Hordes of the minions must have been there when the Martians Transcended. They would have been swept up in the creation of the cloud, just as we have been now. That's why the Martians in here had to warn J'onn. The Imperium will believe they are still at war with all Martians. The last fully living one would be a target they couldn't ignore. With their own kind long gone from the Solar System, J'onn gives them their best chance for answers and to get home, or to find a new one to _make _their home."

Wonder Woman heard Flash audibly gulp at that point. She knew why. She could remember the Justice League's last – and only other – encounter with the Imperium. Of course they had been regular, albeit alien, physical beings then. It had actually been the mission where the Justice League had been formed. They were the threat that had made Diana feel she had no choice but to leave Themyscira to help safeguard Man's World. They had caused her first meeting with Batman...

And they had tried to make the Earth theirs. They had tried to completely block out the sun that was so hazardous to them by ionising the entire sky. They had revealed nothing about their long term plans for humanity, but based on the weaponry they unleashed and their track record on Mars, it was pretty clear that it would not be good. If the human race wasn't enslaved they would have been wiped out. Thankfully the Justice League had found a way to stop them. The Imperium – named after their leader as they didn't seem to have a name of their own – had either been destroyed or had fled into the farthest reaches of space, their leader among the lost. They had not been heard from since, not even a peep. Their threat had been defeated.

Until now.

"And I have lead them straight to the Earth," J'onn added to what Batman had said, now sounding guilty as well as hurt. "I am sorry."

"J'onn! Don't even say that!" Wonder Woman reacted fiercely to that statement. She was not happy about what she was hearing, but they had beaten the Imperium once and she was sure, no matter the circumstances that they found themselves in, they could do so again. Regardless of all that, she would never blame J'onn for this anyway. "This is _not _your fault! You couldn't have seen this coming!"

"Besides," Flash backed her up. "It's not like you asked them here. Now come on, big guy, less mopey, more talky. How we gonna beat them this time? There a way for us to leave this cloud doohickey?"

"We..." J'onn began to answer him, but he got cut off. Batman interrupted him, his tone full of urgency. Looking up again, Wonder Woman immediately saw why.

"That can wait. We've got incoming!"

Batman had the explosive batarang removed from his utility belt, hurling it away before he had finished talking. It was almost like he had seen them coming before they had even arrived, but then he had been the one who wasn't focused purely on J'onn. It was a good job too. It meant the start of the first wave were taken care of before they could unleash any kind of surprise attack.

They came out of nowhere. They didn't walk in, they didn't fly, they didn't even crawl up through the sands. They just literally appeared from thin air. They looked almost exactly like Wonder Woman remembered, although perhaps they were even less solid. They were gelatinous in nature, albeit in a humanoid form, coloured a murky, patchy white. They were hardly imposing or intimidating to look at, but that was irrelevant next to what they were capable of. They were definitely not to be taken lightly. That was why Wonder Woman was glad to see the first batch all completely taken out by Batman's batarang, caught up in its explosive blast. The problem was that they were not alone. More were following in the wake of the first group, appearing just like their predecessors.

And Wonder Woman knew that Batman didn't have enough batarangs for all of them. They might not be physical beings any more, but the heroes were still in a fight.

Wonder Woman quickly leapt to her feet, fists raised, ready to charge at the aggressors. The Imperium had arrived a short distance away. Obviously they wanted to be seen first, they wanted the four to know what was coming for them, likely to try and weaken their resolve. That meant that Batman had the time to halt Wonder Woman's charge before it had really began, an arm thrust out across her path to block her off. Wonder Woman flashed him an angry glare because of it. Eight months ago he had forcefully kept her from a fight where the fate of the entire world was at stake, albeit to protect her. He was _not _doing that to her again. Wonder Woman was a warrior. She was_ going_ to fight. Thankfully, it turned out that Batman had not forgotten that aspect of her in his time away.

"Princess, guard J'onn," he commanded, drawing more weapons to fight the Imperium as he did so. "He's their target. Keep him safe. Flash, with me!"

He didn't wait to hear her reply. He was already leaping into action, already tossing another batarang into the throngs of villains surging towards them. Wonder Woman deeply wanted to chase after him, but she knew that he was right. Damn it, he was right. Tactically it made sense. _Someone _had to protect J'onn. In his current state he could hardly protect himself, and there was no guarantees that the Imperium wouldn't be able to find a way to him if there wasn't someone on guard. And Wonder Woman was the obvious choice. Of the three of them, she was the most powerful, the least reliant on being able to move. She was the one who could most be counted on to hold the ground around J'onn, the one who could be most relied upon to take everything the enemy could throw at her without having to get out of the way. Besides which, she couldn't abandon J'onn to these guys anyway.

But none of that changed the fact that she wanted to be in the heart of the action. She wanted to be right at the front-line. She wanted to be right at Batman's side, and to keep him by hers. There was no way of knowing for sure what their fate would be if they lost this fight, if the Imperium managed to "kill" them in here. It was entirely possible that the death of their illusionary bodies in this illusionary world could destroy the traces of their minds that now existed in the cloud. Wonder Woman did not want to be finding out if that was indeed the case. She wouldn't do at any time, but _especially _not when her eight month vigil was finally over.

Flash only paused to offer her a shrug before dashing after Batman and into the fight that was only seconds away.

"He's _definitely _back," he commented, before he became a blur. Wonder Woman couldn't resist a slight nod of her head before dropping back and taking a guarding stance above the still prone J'onn.

But she kept her eye firmly on the battle as much as she possibly could. She kept her eyes on Batman.

This was definitely _not _how she had hoped their long-awaited reunion to go. She could only pray that the fates – or Bruce himself – were not about to take those hopes away from her.

* * *

Flash was on top of the attackers in no time at all. He hit his targeted Imperium soldier the same second that the batarang struck the next one along, both enemies falling but not staying down for long. Flash, however, kept on running, sending punches into all the soldiers that he could as he went, not staying still for long enough to give them an easy chance of striking back. These guys didn't have the guns that they had back during that first encounter, but Flash remembered that they could still pack one hell of a punch without them. At least they could when they weren't just imaginary... or whatever, _mental beings_. There was no way that a mere bunch of brainwaves could punch him, was there? _Surely_.

Still, this was a fight, and to win it Flash could only think to fight it like any other, so he kept on hitting the Imperium while avoiding getting hit himself. Unless Bats or J'onn came up with another gem about this place that was all he _could _do.

Another batarang sizzled past Flash's ear. It was an explosive one again, catching the Imperium who had been lined up as the next victim of a Wally West sucker punch. Flash only just had time to react and change course so the short-lived fires didn't lick at him too.

"Flash, watch out! You're getting too close!" Batman's voice sprang out from somewhere behind him, punctuated with grunts of effort. He was clearly engaging the Imperium himself, locked in a fist fight, featuring gadgets, that Flash couldn't see. Flash, however, felt more annoyed than concerned. That guy had been his. Instead, he very nearly got flames to the face.

"Relax!" he called back without looking, just carrying on with his rampage. More and more of the bad guys were being turned to goo by his flying fists, the equivalent of knocking them out. Of course, they could well be doing their _Terminator 2_ act in no time once they had 'woken up', but every long moment that they were just a mess in the sands was a long moment that they weren't attacking. Do it enough times and these guys would be beat. "I mean, come on! You said yourself that all this is in our heads. They can't _really _hu–!"

Flash really hated irony. It always had a way of biting him right on the ass. He hadn't even got the word out when one of those amoeba-like villains finally managed to hit him, clotheslining him across the chin. He had gotten too cocky. He hadn't seen it until it was too late. He was sent sprawling, flying off of his feet and skidding across the sands.

But that wasn't the bad part. He could quickly get back up again, he could quickly start running again. The bad part was that getting hit like that hurt. It _really _hurt.

He had been wrong. It didn't matter that they were just an image created by their minds. It seemed that here, inside the cloud, the projections had essentially created a physical form, or at least gave them all the sensations of one. Pain was definitely a part of that. Right now, Flash's chin was throbbing.

Worse, falling like he had had allowed the Imperium to gather around him, encircling him. It may have been easy for Flash to haul himself back to his feet before another blow could come in, and it may have been easy for him to _start _running. But all that was useless if there wasn't somewhere where he _could _run. These guys had him trapped, they had him completely cornered. Any direction that he ran, he would just run straight into one of them, and now Flash didn't want to be doing _that _again. They could pack a real wallop for a bunch of ghosts... With the circle around him getting rows deep, Flash's eyes widened in fear, desperately looking for a way out of this. He had learned the hard way that even in the cloud he could be wounded. He didn't want to also find out if he could be _killed _in here.

Thankfully he didn't have to find out. The head of the grapple burst through a line of the Imperium like an alien through John Hurt, latching on hard to the last in the line in place of displaced gooey innards. One hard tug was all it took for the entire line of Imperium to fall like a bunch of pins during a strike. Like with Flash, unless more damage was done to them they wouldn't be staying down for long, but that clearly wasn't necessary. They hadn't been toppled to be beaten. They had been toppled to provide Flash with a way out. The line of fallen soldiers gave him a perfect escape route from his predicament, a perfect path out of the entrapment.

And it was an escape Flash quickly took, running right over the top of all those fallen Imperiums. His feet almost crushed them all as he ran, particularly due to his speeds. An added bonus. Perhaps those ones would be staying down after all. Flash actually smirked a little before skidding to a halt beside Batman, although not before punching away an Imperium that had been allowed to get a bit too close to the broody guy, no doubts as a consequence of him giving Flash his way out.

"I told you to be careful!" Batman chastised Flash with a furious growl as the two wound up back-to-back, looking at the hordes of Imperium still around them. "Its entirely possible that you could get killed in here. If you do then your mind will be lost forever! You'll be dead in every sense of the word!"

"I got it!" Flash firmly stated back, rubbing his throbbing chin for emphasis. His own voice wasn't exactly sounding light-hearted in that moment. He didn't like being treated like a misbehaving child, even if he did know it was Batman's way of showing he cared, that he wanted to protect Flash. That he counted Flash as a friend. "We can't do this the simple way. So what's your _better _plan then?"

Batman threw a punch as another Imperium got too close. With the two back-to-back, that meant that Flash was able to look beyond as Batman occupied the nearest attacker. He could see that some of the Imperium had gotten through their two man line of defence. Not surprising really, especially given that hiccup he had just had. Wonder Woman was fighting them, doing a remarkable job of keeping any and all of them away from J'onn in the fleeting look Flash took.

His attention was quickly brought back to his own fight as another Imperium came charging at them, this one more his side than Batman's. Whirling his hands in rapid circles, he created a gust that blew the alien away. It landed a fair distance away, right against one its fellows, causing one heck of a splat. However, they were also reforming near instantly, sped along by the narrow spread of their materials.

"To stay alive," Batman finally growled a very simplistic answer to Flash's question, causing Flash to look at him with a '_that's it?_' kind of expression on his face. He wanted to actually say those words, but he didn't get them out before Batman was diving against some more charging Imperium, tackling them to the ground before they could run past and on towards J'onn and Wonder Woman. Just seconds before he did so, Flash noticed that Batman was very intently checking up on those two with a glance of his own.

However, Flash was then left to just get on with it. There were plenty of Imperium left to get rid of. There was plenty of fighting left to do. So back into the throngs of the horde he ran, only this time, he would be more careful.

* * *

Wonder Woman sent her fist crashing into yet another Imperium soldier, before performing a flying back flip through the air to stop another one before he could attack J'onn. The big Martian was trying to get up to help her, but all he had done so far was to cause his pain to momentarily heighten and make him let out another quick scream. It was all up to Wonder Woman to keep all the Imperium from him that had made it past Batman and the Flash.

And she was doing a damn good job of it too. She wasn't up against the same kind of numbers that Batman and Flash were, but then she also wasn't covering anywhere near so much ground. Her fighting was more compact, and so it felt all the more intense. Hera, these Imperium seemed to really want to get their hands on J'onn. Almost inevitably, it indeed seemed like they wanted to kill him. Wonder Woman would not let that happen. She would guard him to the end, just as she would anyone worthy of such protection. She would give it every ounce of strength she had, every last breath if that was what it took.

But that didn't mean that she also wasn't keeping one eye on Bruce. Whenever she could she cast a glance his way, to the only man who could, and would, ever truly capture her heart.

The one man who had yet to confirm to her that she could also still have his...

"Diana..." J'onn groaned up, catching her attention instantly.

Wonder Woman finished sticking her fist through the 'head' of the last Imperium soldier close enough to J'onn to be an immediate threat before turning to him. For one brief moment she was scared that she had missed something, that perhaps she had been so distracted with her current targets that a soldier or two had snuck past her to J'onn. Thankfully that turned out to be paranoia. However, when she did turn back to the pained Martian, she certainly didn't get an overly pleasant surprise.

"The cloud, I can feel it..." J'onn resumed, croaking out the words. "It's moving. It's heading for the Earth. Diana, it's attacking... We have to stop it, now. We have to get out of here..."

She didn't have time to react straight away. More Imperium were drawing near, ready to attack like the others. Wonder Woman whipped her lasso from her hip, swinging it around them with great precision just before they could arrive. Pulling it tight, she was able to make them fall, cutting deep into their not entirely solid bodies. That made it easy for her to sweep forward and pound them all out of the fight.

The instant she was done, though, she was back to J'onn's side. _Now_ she could react. Now she could show her worry at such a thought. The Imperium attacking them were still too numerous. There was no way _to _get away from them, never mind stop and figure out a way to affect the very cloud that now contained them.

"Then we're in trouble," she muttered, looking out at the hordes again. As she did so, for the briefest of moments she caught Batman looking back to her in between Imperium aggressors. For that moment, their eyes locked. She knew that in hers Batman would be able to read that worry, along with the determination not to give up, to keep fighting. She also knew that he would see how glad she was to at least be facing this with him back at her side.

But she could see nothing in his. With his lenses covering his eyes he was giving nothing away. Eight months was really a very long time when she thought about it. It was time for plenty of things to change, for _opinions _to change, for promises to be broken...

She quickly cast such thoughts from her head. Now was the time for worry of a different sort. There wasn't time to be selfish right now, even if such worries were true and not just paranoid delusions. Right now, the world needed them. The rest of the Justice League might be able to stop the cloud from the outside where they had failed, but she very much had the sense that they were in the best position to act, to somehow take this thing down from within. Right now she had to give all her efforts to the fight, to finding some way past these Imperium soldiers so that they could get to work saving the world again. And that wasn't even mentioning finding some way to get their minds back into their bodies.

But that was all easier said than done.

"Indeed. We _all _are," J'onn agreed with her comment. More Imperium were almost upon them. Wonder Woman braced herself to engage them again, but not before J'onn had added three simple words. "Very _big _trouble."

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_So there you go. They ain't dead yet – and neither are plenty of certain aliens who were long thought gone. Be honest now, how many of you predicted it?_

_Review/follow/favourite away, but particularly the first one. Last few chapters too if you haven't already. 'tis all greatly desired and appreciated. _

_In return, you'll soon get to see what happens next (though still likely in about a week, despite the use of puppy eyes by some - apologies), as that cloud starts to show the Earth how bad storms can really be. These four ain't the only ones with a battle on their hands. _

_And this thing is only just getting started..._


	8. Chapter 7: Land Downunder

**Chapter 7: Land Downunder**

Shayera instantly felt the air whipping all around her as she re-materialised up high in the skies above Metropolis. For the briefest of seconds she began to fall before her wings caught her, steadying her where she was. She gripped her mace tightly as she looked around, having to use her free hand to hold her hair out of her eyes. At this altitude the wind speed was well up there, with a very nasty chill to it. That, though, she could ignore. There were a lot of worse things than her catching a cold that could be about to happen.

She spotted the others all materialising around her, every single Leaguer available who possessed the ability to fly. It ought to have been an impressive sight, so many superheroes arriving so quickly in such a relatively small spot, ready for battle. Fire, Steel, S.T.R.I.P.E., Rocket Red, Red Tornado, The Ray, Doctor Light, Aztek, and that was just some of them who were beaming in. Of course, Captain Atom, Booster Gold and Stargirl were the first to be right there with Shayera having shared her ride down here. That meant that they, like her, were able to watch the terrors of that energy cloud's arrival only seconds after their own.

In fact, it was the sound that hit Shayera first, drawing her eyes to the right part of the skies even further above her. It was a roar of thunder, an incredible noise no storm could compare to. The sudden impact of such pure energy with the particles of the atmosphere did that. It wasn't like a single bolt of lightning being unleashed either. This was constant, an endless stream of power coursing through the air. The noise didn't keep up the same volume, but the roar didn't stop. It was almost as if the cloud was trying to tell the whole world that it was coming, and that they should be afraid.

It wasn't exactly a comforting sight to look at, either, once Shayera had the cloud spotted. It suddenly looked far darker, far more aggressive than it had from space over a video screen. It still looked like a cloud, but definitely a dark one. What was more, the pulsating glow remained but Shayera could now see what was causing it. Lightning-like lines of energy were coursing all around its surface, trailing around it in endlessly changing patterns. Not only did the energy look dangerous enough just being there, but it also looked as if it could be fashioned as a weapon and a shield all at once. It looked like it would be a line of defence that may well soak up any attack unleashed the cloud's way. The whole cloud was massive too, already dominating the sky despite still being some distance away. It certainly looked like it could easily swallow up half a city in one go if it was left unabated, and it also certainly seemed like that was its aim.

The thing was moving closer, slowed by the atmosphere but it was still moving. Just as the Watchtower computer's had predicted, it was moving to were the assemblage of heroes hung in the air, right in its path to Metropolis down below them. The thing was definitely attacking, and it had proved the damage it could do using virtually the strongest of examples. It didn't matter how tough it looked, how tough it _was_. For the sake of so many, it had to be stopped.

Shayera was determined. It shall not pass.

She started making plans in her mind. They had maybe a few minutes before that cloud was on top of them, looking at the speed it was moving. Shayera wracked her brains fast. The quicker she had the plan, the quicker _they _could close the distance to fight back and, as such, the further they could keep this thing from the millions of citizens in the city below. Ultimately, that thought made her plan for her.

All the members of the Justice League knew their own powers implicitly, knew what they could each respectively do. They all knew the risks, knew from having seen what happened to Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and J'onn what this cloud could do to them if they weren't careful. They also all knew the stakes, knew just how much was in danger if they didn't do everything they possibly could to stop this thing now. They wouldn't need instructing. With no history against a foe like this there was no bank of knowledge to draw upon to help guide them to victory anyway.

Therefore, for Shayera the best choice of action was for them all to just unleash, and to unleash now. So that was exactly the order that she gave.

"There's no time to waste people! Attack!"

She wasn't just talk either. She didn't wait around for the others to lead the charge. She was the one and only Founder here. She was the one that they would be looking up to, the one who needed to be setting the example, and so she did. She lead the charge herself.

Shayera gripped her mace tight as her wings were flung back, sending her surging upwards and onwards as fast as she could fly. Even over the sound the cloud was still creating, she heard the crackle as her mace's own power built, saw the light of its own energy casing coming into existence. There were many things that her powerful Nth metal mace had destroyed, many things which had otherwise seemed relatively indestructible. She was determined to prove this cloud to be another of those things. She could tell without looking that the others were hot on her tail, but she was definitely going to be the one to attack first. It may well be wishful thinking, but Shayera still hoped that she alone would be enough.

It didn't take long to cross the distance. Soon she was quickly having to halt her charge, not wanting to fly straight into the approaching chaos, actually having to slowly fly backwards so that it's approach didn't swallow her up. She wasn't wanting to wind up like the four laid out, possibly dead, up on the Watchtower.

This close, the noise was increasingly deafening from the cloud. Shayera, though, blocked it all out. She made her own noise. She unleashed a furious yell as she hurled the fully charged mace at the cloud–

Only to have it pass right through...

It didn't do a thing to slow or damage the cloud, not a damn thing, despite discharging all of its built up power. Shayera quickly and distraughtly had to pull her mace away before the encroaching cloud got hold of her hands. In fact, she had to fly back entirely. It turned out that she needed a plan after all. If the mace did nothing, then there was nothing she could do. She could hardly punch this thing. That would _definitely _take her out of the fight. But she also wouldn't give up. No, now she had to provide the back up to the rest. She had to hope that one of them would have more luck.

As she flew away, still facing the cloud every part of the way. She began to look around, began to check up on all the rest, desperate to see them being more successful and that she wouldn't have to risk doing something totally desperate and stupid. She could see Red Tornado trying to blast the thing away with his aerokinesis, Stargirl shooting at it with her staff and Fire trying to burn it all away and break it apart with her flames. to name just a few of the efforts.

But she didn't get the chance to study it in too much depth. It was then that her comm link buzzed. She only just heard the sound over the roar of the cloud, quickly flinging a finger to her ear to activate the comm. She was hoping it was good news. She was hoping the Leaguers still on the Watchtower had found a way to use it to save the day. She was dearly hoping that she and the others in the skies wouldn't even be needed.

"Tell me it's good news!" she had to shout out so that whoever it was on the other end could hear her. "We sure could use some down here!"

Green Arrow's voice rang back to her. It sounded like he was definitely busy working away while talking to her, which at least meant that those on the Watchtower were still trying _some_ things out to stop this cloud still glaring before Shayera's eyes. Still _angrily _glaring. However, Arrow's voice had no traces of victory, no joy to it. There were no signs that he was pleased, that the world was saved. Instead, there was only traces of the opposite.

"We could use some up here too," the comm mimicked Arrow's voice, faint over all the other noise, definitely glum. "Nothing that we've tried has worked yet, and we've tried plenty so far. We'll keep going, though. I called about something else. The marines are on their way."

"And what are _they_ gonna do?" Shayera growled back. "Bullets and bombs will just pass straight through this thing if my mace did! And if it can alter the part of it that's actually solid like the scanners said they'll have no chance of doing anything!"

"The people have to try _something_," Arrow pointed out in response. "They can't just sit around on their asses every time and wait for us to do all the saving for them. I've shared everything we know with them, anyway. Don't worry, they know what's going on. They know this isn't something that they can shoot their way out of the old fashioned way. They're the last line of defence in case the Justice League can't stop this cloud. And they're there to try and get the people of Metropolis as clear as they can as fast as they can."

_That _made sense. Sometimes Shayera could get so lost in what she was doing that she lost sight of the overall picture. Now had been one of those times. She had been so caught up in stopping the cloud that she hadn't thought of contingencies. If Metropolis was the cloud's target, then they had to get the people out. They had to get them clear and hope that the cloud wouldn't just follow them. _That _the military could take control of. Them doing so meant that the Justice League didn't have to give up any excess manpower to do it themselves.

"Good," Shayera muttered, the earlier anger in her voice lessened. Of course, it wasn't gone entirely. It never was in the face of such a potentially dangerous fight as this. "We'll try to hold this thing off as long as we can at least. _Hopefully_ we'll do more than that."

"Ditto, sweetheart," Green Arrow returned, matching her tone. "And if we've got anyone to spare up here we'll send them down to lend the military a hand. Just so you know, your last pieces of back-up are on their way."

Even as he was saying it, Shayera saw the two flashes of light off to the side, even against the backdrop of bright blue where the sky wasn't tainted by the energy cloud. She didn't need to turn and give it a proper look to know who it was, but she did so anyway. GL and Superman wouldn't be missing this.

She had barely turned her head when Superman was charging in to join the rest assaulting the cloud. Of course he would be fighting even harder than _anyone _else there or anywhere else. This went far beyond the fact that he was the single most powerful being on the planet. It was because it was _his _city down there at risk, the one that he had protected from the day he had created the mantle of Superman.

GL however, hesitated before charging in himself. Shayera caught sight of him looking around rather desperately, and she immediately knew why. Her feelings on _that _situation were hazy. They had been for a while now. She loved John Stewart. She had done for years. During her self imposed exile and while he was so firmly with Mari, she had never stopped loving him. Even now she hadn't stopped, despite John managing to piss her off like no-one else ever could with his new-found inability to decide what it was that he wanted. One second it seemed like they were set to get back together, then the next he would make it seem impossible. For too long that had gone on. It was making every day a chore for her. She still loved him, she wanted him back, but everyday he played her on only to change his mind made her want to unleash her mace into his rugged face. It didn't help that she was falling for it every single time he did something that suggested to her that he still loved her too.

And right now was one of those moments. He was checking that she was all right. It was only after he had spotted her and the flash of relief crossed his face that he joined Superman in leaping into the throngs of the fight.

Damn that man for doing this to her. Damn him.

"I see them, Arrow," she forced herself to say, failing to hide _all _the emotions that were racing through her from her voice. "I've got to go. Things are getting pretty hairy down here. We need all hands to the pumps."

"Same here," Arrow repeated. If he had registered that there was a completely different reason that Shayera wanted to end the conversation, he wasn't showing it. If he had realised that just that fleeting glimpse of John Stewart had made her want to go and bash..._something_ apart in rage, he didn't let on. "Give it hell."

Green Arrow then clicked off the comm before Shayera could do it from her end. She paused for a moment after that, allowing herself time to react. She had to get at least some control back before the anger that had built up in her meant she did something foolish. However, such efforts were futile as soon as she saw the green light being flung against the darkness of the cloud. Just seeing that part of John Stewart had her fully pissed off all over again.

There was nothing else for it. She would have to fight angry. If it were any normal fight that would surely spell doom for her enemy, would mean there would be no stopping her from tearing them limb from limb should she so wish.

But this wasn't a normal fight. In this fight, she could only hope that the anger would be enough to keep them alive.

And from the way that she now noticed that the cloud was still moving forwards despite the Justice League throwing everything at it, she could not prevent the thought whizzing through her head that that was a rather slim hope.

* * *

"Lane!"

The well familiar voice of Perry White reverberated around their floor of the Daily Planet. Lois instantly looked up to see him staring across at her from the door of his office, the excited look on his face that he had whenever there was a big, multiple paper-selling story happening out there. However, Lois had actually beaten him to it.

"Big, scary cloud in the sky being engaged by the Justice League. I'm already on it, chief!" she called back to him. She had plenty of her own sources out there. She didn't need to rely on Perry White's to hear before the public that the government were dispatching the marines into the city. She had got the call just moments ago, literally the very second after she had finished typing up the other story she had been working on. Of course, this one could well make that one pale in comparison. She didn't understand how a _cloud _could be so dangerous as the situation was making it seem, but it was her job to find out.

Besides, she had a personal stake in this too. She had no firm knowledge as to what it was that had gone so wrong that Superman had had to cut their date short so solemnly, but now she definitely had the impression that this _cloud _had something to do with it. More than to just to get her hands on what could be a Pullitzer worthy story, she wanted to be on this so that she could keep a close eye on Superman and make sure that he didn't get himself into trouble. She wanted to be on this story to find out what had gone so wrong before, to make sure the _other _member of the Justice League that she had once been very close to was all right as well.

"Good, because if the marines are needed as well as the Justice League, this ought to be one heck of a danger. The people will want to know all about it!"

"I said I'm on it, chief," Lois returned again, fully understanding the situation here. It was the very fact that it wasn't just the Justice League involved that had her so nervous, that had her starting to worry about Superman and the rest. There wasn't much that they couldn't handle alone. If they couldn't now, then this thing, whatever it really was, _must _be tough. "I'm about to hitch a ride now to go and get a closer look."

"Keep me informed," Perry returned to her, not wasting any time. He had been in the journalism game even longer than she had. He definitely knew how it was played. When news was breaking there wasn't time to stand around discussing it, not when you could be on hand witnessing it. That was why at Lois' words he slunk back into his office and left her to get to work. His head had only just ducked back behind the door frame when Lois began dialling her phone. After only a couple of rings, her call was answered.

"This is Snapper Carr. Make it quick, I'm in a hurry," the voice of the well known TV reporter spoke up out of the receiver. He indeed sounded as if he was in a rush. Just from what she had heard from those couple of seconds Lois couple deduce that he was talking while on the move.

"Snapper, its Lois at the Planet," she returned, wasting no time herself. "I know you'll have heard about what's going on up in the skies. I know you'll be getting in your helicopter to go and get some pictures, to report live from the scene. I want in. I want a seat on your chopper."

"I'm not giving up my story, Lois," Snapper quickly responded, no time for etiquette and pleasantries.

"I'm just asking to be an observer," Lois immediately attempted to assuage what was clearly the stumbling block in Snapper's mind. "I know you'll be getting the best view of this thing that civilians can get. I want to be there to see it. I'm not interested in sabotaging your report. I'll sit quietly in the back so long as I can see. Papers are my game. I'm more than happy to leave TV to you."

Snapper paused, in speech anyway. It was clear that he was still walking as he mulled over the offer. "Fine. We'll pick you up from the roof of the Planet ASAP. But I'll hold you to what you said. Just so you know, I'm agreeing to this because I'm expecting to be able to go even closer now with you aboard, what with your good buddy Superman always around to save you if something goes wrong."

"Just tell the pilot not to get so cocky he's acting stupid," Lois answered, though she was glad. She had her ride. "I'll be waiting by the time you get here. See you soon."

Snapper didn't wait to see bye. The phone was already clicking off. Lois quickly reset her receiver, grabbing up a pen and paper as well as a camera, knowing that Snapper wouldn't be so willing to offer up a second seat for a proper photographer. She didn't wait any longer than that. She just stood and swept her way out of the room, heading for the stairwell to the roof.

She knew that this ride would likely be dangerous, but then a lot of things were in the life that she led. She had long since proved that she could cope with danger, _especially _with the friends she'd made over the years. This danger now was just another she would overcome for her own cause. She would find out what was going on up there, and she would keep her watchful eye on the heroes she cared about.

One in particular, even if he still hadn't gotten around to telling her the obvious truth.

* * *

It didn't take long for it to become apparent to Superman that the others hadn't had any success yet in the time before he and Green Lantern had arrived. Some things were slowing the cloud down slightly, such as the winds created by Red Tornado or the radiation given off by Captain Atom. However, nothing was stopping it. The cloud just ended up moving around whatever the Justice League threw at it, or powering its way through. It was insatiable, irresistible, relentless.

And things hadn't changed one jot since the two of them had arrived, either.

Superman's first choice when facing a foe for the first time was always to try and talk them down, to find out what the villain actually wanted and to see if there was a peaceful solution that all could be happy with. His second was always to let his fists do the talking, to unleash a reasonable amount of his almighty strength to show the foe that he, the Justice League and the Earth were not to be messed with.

But right now neither of them were an option, not while he still had some of his sanity left. That left his other powers as his only real choice. The problem was that neither his freeze breath nor his heat vision did a thing to oppose it. Neither did flying around the cloud at maximum speed to try and create a whirlwind to blow it away. The cloud always managed to adjust its energy or shape to undo whatever it was Superman tried, be it to melt a frozen chunk or to power past any vortex of swilling air.

Green Lantern wasn't having much better luck either. His power ring was creating a barrier big enough to run the entire length of the onwards crawling cloud. It worked to some extent; the cloud was completely unable to power its way through the light. However, the cloud wasn't stopped by John's ring either. It just pushed on against it, keeping moving, shoving John Stewart on ahead of it despite all the incredible will power John was putting in to stopping it.

After yet another effort to use his mighty breath to blow the cloud away had failed, even though this one was in conjunction with Red Tornado doing likewise, Superman flew back for a second to take in the bigger picture. Shayera wound up doing the exact same thing at the exact same time, flying so that she hovered in the air right at his side. Together they could see the rest of the Justice League continuing on with the various efforts, increasingly through joint ventures, with John still battling away against it with his ring.

"It's definitely slower," Shayera was the first of the two of them to make a comment. In itself that sounded like it was a good thing, but such surface truths rarely held when you looked at the situation a little deeper.

"But we're already throwing everything against it," Superman voiced those issues. "And it's not close to stopping yet."

He looked back behind him after saying that, in the direction of the cloud's path. In all his various efforts against the cloud, Superman had been sure to move with it, to keep himself from getting caught up in it. If Wonder Woman and J'onn could be so affected by it with all their respective durability, then he could easily be too, even if he did have slightly more. He couldn't risk going in there, not when he couldn't be sure if his chances of success were any greater than remaining on the outside.

The thing was though, with the cloud pushing him and the Justice League endlessly backwards, they were now getting dangerously close to Metropolis. Superman could now easily make out the world famous globe atop the roof of the Daily Planet, without even having to focus with his various vision enhancements. The entire city was getting closer and closer to being swallowed up by this thing. All those people couldn't just fly out the way like the Justice League heroes were having to do. Millions of people were getting very close to at least falling into the same state as Wonder Woman, Batman, the Flash and J'onn, if not worse.

Millions of _his _people. Lois included.

They _had_ to stop this thing.

"We have to try something new," he added to his previous statement, determined to keep hold of all hope that he could. "Perhaps if we unleash everyone in unison. Perhaps combinations of our powers that we haven't tried yet. _Something has to work_."

Shayera was quickly nodding her head in concurrence, but whether that was through shared hope instead of belief in the plan Superman wasn't sure. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that the Justice League were willing to try. Even if it cost them everything in doing so.

With that both heroes flew back in to the heat of the action, ready to unleash their powers on the endlessly surging mass of energy once more. As he did so, Superman once again noticed how the cloud seemed to be requiring more energy to keep going on, that it was moving slower than before.

But it always seemed to find more energy, more reserves to keep advancing on Metropolis. There was the briefest of moments when it almost looked like the others had finally managed to stop the cloud, but then it surged onwards, for ta second having even more speed than before. Superman didn't catch what had caused such reaction, but from how the cloud surged onwards afterwards, that was probably a good thing. They just didn't have enough distance left to risk giving the cloud more power in their efforts to stop it.

They badly needed some new ideas. It was just a shame that the people most likely to come up with some, whether knowledgeable, brilliant or just so insane that it might have worked, were the exact same ones who were lying brain dead in the Watchtower's Infirmary. They sure could use Batman, J'onn, Wonder Woman and the Flash right about now. But they weren't bad themselves, even if they were yet to prove that here. They would just have to do the best they could without the others.

And hope that it was enough.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_**I know this is a tad later than promised, but last week releasing it on match day coincidentally saw Man United play well, and I'm hoping for the same trick to work tonight!**_

_**Anyways, here you go, new chapters up. Let me know what you all think.**_


	9. Chapter 8: Assault and Battery

**Chapter 8: Assault and Battery**

The cloud buckled all around them. It was remarkable. It felt almost like an earthquake was rippling through it all, even if those sands beneath their feet didn't budge an inch because of it. Flash just about kept his balance through it all, even as he kept running. For a second he began to wonder what had caused it, especially as he noticed some of the Imperium wobbling under it too. But then Flash noticed a bad guy getting too close for comfort and he was caught up in the fight all over again, the wobbling cast aside and left as forgotten as it could be.

Yet another bunch of Imperium were exploded by one of Bats' batarangs. Once again it was remarkably close to where Flash ran, but this one wasn't near to actually catching him. The batarang struck its targets just as Flash was zooming by, meaning that by the time the fireball had grown, he was gone.

Flash had actually grabbed hold of one of these Imperium soldiers. He had pounded a few more into goo as he charged past, with fists flying so rapidly it was amazing he hadn't taken off, but this latest one he just ran clean into. He had spotted a bunch of ten or so Imperium soldiers charging off to one side, and he had decided that it was time to go bowling.

He was moving so fast that the guy he carried hadn't the chance to try and hit him. In fact, that Imperium didn't even have time to grab at him, to get a hold of him. Flash was doing all the supporting there. That was why he didn't have to bother throwing the guy to send him flying into his friends. He just had to stop rapidly, and the guy's momentum did all the rest.

Flash was already celebrating before it struck home. The Imperium slammed into its mates fully head on, sending both the hurled and the hit tumbling and splatting against the sands in a chain reaction. Flash's celebrations were slightly short-lived though. Two of them were left standing after all of that. Not for long, mind. Flash ran forward to finish those two off the old fashioned way. Still, he groaned in disappointment. He'd only managed a spare.

He didn't stop though. He was rapidly wheeling around to look for more bad guys to fell. There were plenty of them around. _Plenty_...

Or at least there had been. He had been too preoccupied to notice them all disappear.

Suddenly they were all gone.

* * *

Wonder Woman smashed away the latest Imperium to encroach too close to J'onn. There had been many over the last few minutes, despite the efforts of Wally and Bruce, but Wonder Woman hadn't failed to notice that a few less had made it this far since that rumbling shake had happened a few moments ago. She didn't know what it had been. She didn't have the time to stop and figure it out yet either. So long as it didn't happen again, so long as there weren't negative connotations coming with it, she had more important things to worry about right now.

There were still a heck of a lot of the Imperium soldiers around, even after the 'quake', still too many of them for the Justice League to get by to try and stop the cloud, especially with J'onn still prone in the sands. There was still a fight to be had.

But in that moment, Wonder Woman caught a slight break. There was a gap, a moment when there were none close enough for _her _to engage. It was a moment where she could check up on the others, to make sure that they were all doing all right too. She had complete faith in them, but she also knew how dangerous these guys could be. Getting conceited could prove their undoing. She couldn't risk it. She wouldn't. Especially with Bruce, even if he was the one she had the _most _faith in.

But he was alive. And she could see countless of the Imperium were falling under his waves of attacks, be it from his fists or his arsenal of weaponry. Of course they were. He was the Batman. He was the man who had once fought an entire war single-handedly, and won.

And he was the man who had failed to tell her yet whether he had come back to _her _or not.

That thought alone got Wonder Woman's madness pent up ready for the next bout, tensing up her muscles. She could see some more Imperium had broken though the lines of Batman and Flash. They were coming straight for her again, or for _J'onn _more accurately.

Or they had been doing. Just seconds before they were in range of Wonder Woman's powerful fists, they stopped suddenly, an odd ripple flowing through their bodies as they did so. That wasn't the end of it either. Only half a breath later, the Imperium all completely disappeared.

It almost looked like they were being drained away down a giant, invisible plug hole. Wonder Woman surged forward, wanting to catch at least one of them. She knew that getting rid of these guys was a good thing, it was what they needed. But she also recognised how advantageous it could have been to get one of them captured, to use them to find out _exactly _what was going on here. More accurately, she knew that capturing one of them could have helped them to figure out how to stop this cloud. The problem was, the Imperium all slipped straight through her fingers, fast becoming lost to the sands.

Once the last traces of alien disappeared between her fingers, Wonder Woman was quickly looking up, observing the rest of the scene again. First she had to make sure that this wasn't all just a ruse, an attempted trick to get around her and J'onn. She even flew back to stand right over the Martian and defend him, just in case, but it turned out to be unnecessary. It wasn't a kind of Trojan Horse manoeuvre. The Imperium really had _gone_.

And it wasn't only the ones who had been closing in on her that were going either. They all were. Every last one of them. Even the ones that had already fallen were vanishing. As the last one drained away, a bright flash of light against the red 'skies' shone, almost signifying their journey.

The four heroes were on their own again. Wonder Woman looked across at her fellows. She saw the confusion spread around Flash's face first, but typically it was Batman that caught her eye. He was holding his ground, pretty much holding his pose from the second the Imperium had started to vanish. His eyes had narrowed, his brow furrowed. You didn't have to know him as well as Diana did to understand that he was working this out in his head. He was already planning and counter-planning, working out what was going on and how to handle it.

It was an act that they all had to do now, Wonder Woman knew. Before citizens of the Earth down below were lost to the cloud, they had to find a way to stop it from within. J'onn had made that perfectly clear to her. They couldn't go looking the gift horse in the mouth. For whatever reason they had left, the Imperium's disappearance had given them an opportunity to act. The end to the fighting had opened up that door to them. They couldn't refuse to walk through it now. The people down below didn't have time for them to, and they couldn't let the people down.

Of course, Wonder Woman hadn't far to go to get right back to J'onn's side, knowing that they would need the Martian's knowledge and guesswork to help them through this. However, Flash still managed to beat her there – just.

"Yeah, they'd better run!" Flash called out to no-one in particular, though clearly in reference to the departing Imperium. Wonder Woman couldn't help but feel that Flash was sounding a little too joyous, a little too optimistic. Things were _never _that easy.

"What happened?"

Wonder Woman directed the question to J'onn, who was still prone in the sands though looking like he was trying to sit up again. However, Flash leapt in first once more.

"Isn't it obvious? We're clearly a bunch of real life Ghostbusters!" he was booming out, sounding very pleased with himself. "We scared them off. They knew that we ain't afraid of no ghosts, or spooks, or..._memories_. Or whatever. They saw that bustin' makes us feel good!"

"What?" Wonder Woman voiced her confusion. Flash had managed to completely lose her. It definitely sounded like it wasn't just the Imperium he was referring to any more, though what else Wonder Woman couldn't tell. For a moment she was starting to worry that there was something else going on that she had missed, but it was a brief second.

"He's referencing the film '_Ghostbusters_', and he's being an idiot."

Batman spoke up as he swept over the scene, with his cape billowing behind him. His words completely assuaged any additional worries that had been building in her, though there were still plenty of the old one's around. Batman was quickly past both Wonder Woman and Flash, leaning down at J'onn's side. The Martian was clearly wanting to get up, and Batman clearly needed him to be standing again too. Without either saying a word but with plenty of groans from J'onn, Batman threw J'onn's arm over his shoulders and used it to hoist the alien up with him.

"Hey!" Flash protested at being insulted. "I'm just trying to–"

"Quiet," Batman growled, silencing Flash. Flash looked like he was ready to protest again, but Batman gave him one of his most fearsome trademark glares to keep him silenced. "We don't have time for joking around. The cloud must be attacking again. We have to stop it."

"Indeed," J'onn was quickly concurring with Batman, repeating what he had earlier told Wonder Woman in the heat of the fighting. "I can sense it. The cloud is moving. It is advancing on the people of the world. Now that I am in here, even if they haven't taken me captive yet, the cloud has a new priority. The people of the Earth are its new target. It is intending to absorb them, a _lot_ of them. With no guarantees that it is possible to leave this place, we cannot let that happen."

"So why did the Imperium all flee?" Wonder Woman just had to ask. To properly fight this, she had to know more about exactly what it was that they were facing. She didn't need everything, but she needed more than she already had. "What's going on in here?"

"They fled for the same reason the other ones are directing the cloud towards the Earth's citizens," Batman was quick to stoically answer. "Now that J'onn is in here and can't escape them, their priorities will have changed. They now want to give the cloud more power, by having more focused minds directing their efforts. No doubt when the cloud began to move towards the atmosphere the rest of the Justice League would have moved in to face it. Clearly _something _that they were doing was starting to have an effect on it. Keeping some of their numbers here fighting us was too much of a distraction of effort. They were needed back with the others, to provide the cloud with the power to overcome what it is the League is throwing at it. The quake we felt a few moments ago proves it. That was the cloud stumbling against the League's efforts. It was the signal for the Imperium soldiers to be recalled."

"I agree," J'onn added before anyone else could speak, pressing onwards with what he had to say despite sounding pained to do so. "Everything I have been able to read from them suggests the same thing. What the Imperium desire most – now that the last Martian is trapped within the cloud – is more energy, more power. They require more minds to assert a greater control of the cloud. Ever since the Transcendence, there has been a battle of power over the cloud. The Imperium have greater numbers but with less developed telepathic powers their minds have less weight than a Martians. They have control of the cloud, but not an overriding one. They need more minds to achieve that, to be able to use the cloud to kill the Martians within it and to turn it into a weapon against the outside world too. The people of Earth happened to be the closest viable population to me, so the humans would have to be the power source the Imperium pursued."

"But _why_ would they target us humans?" Flash couldn't keep quiet any longer. "It's not like us lot are gonna comply with them. Surely they realise that they'll just wind up adding more minds to the side of the good guys. That they'll wind up with less control?"

"They don't need compliance," Batman stepped in again. "They just need people. Even an unconscious mind can be active. It can give off thought patterns. If the Imperium can harvest that, then they won't need anyone to agree with them. They'll just need minds plugged in to the harvesters. The only pre-requisite required is that the mind remains alive. It's not like there's a lot of people down there who can oppose the Imperium in here. If the Imperium manage to absorb sufficient people, they could obtain unimaginable power. They could become unstoppable. We can't let that happen."

Wonder Woman didn't fully understand what she was hearing, but then she didn't have to. She had understood enough. Things were even worse than she had thought. This cloud was a menace like none the Justice League had ever faced before, even if it was controlled by the enemies they originated against. It was also just about the deadliest thing they had ever seen, or at least it could very soon become so. It had to be stopped.

But that wasn't the only thing worrying her. It was selfish, and it was the kind of thought that made her loathe herself for allowing to come into her head at a time like this. But it was there. She was feeling confused, and that was making her angry. Batman seemed to have realised an awful lot about what was going on awfully quickly, even more so than usual. It was almost like he had known or suspected a lot of it before he had even come here.

It was almost as if it was indeed this energy cloud that he had returned to the Justice League for, to fight it.

It was almost as if that was his sole reason for returning.

It was almost as if things _had _changed, almost as if he wasn't going to be coming back to _her _after all...

But no. She couldn't think like this. She couldn't afford to. The people of the Earth couldn't afford for her to. They would be counting on her, along with the other three. They would be needing her to have her head in the game, to be focussed on what she had to do. If she wasn't, then this could all end _very _badly.

But she couldn't entirely shift the thoughts from her mind. Batman had done too good a job of worming his way in. For a man to win the love of an Amazon, he had to have done that and more. There was no way she could entirely block out her worries about what his damn stubborn mind would allow for their future, not even now. She would just have to cope with it.

And to confront him for the truth about his time away and his return as soon as she had the reasonable chance to.

"So how do we go about doing that?" she asked now instead, beginning that process of overcoming her nagging mind, of getting back to the task at hand. "How do we take control of this cloud _away _from the Imperium so that they can't gain any more minds of any kind? How do we stop this energy cloud's threat?"

Once again, it was Batman who answered first. It didn't matter if his answer was simplistic and without the depth to give her a proper response. It seemed to say enough that he still knew what he was talking about. In turn, that meant that Wonder Woman had to immediately clamp down on her feelings again.

"There are two possibilities. The Martian's help _us _assume control, or we take the cloud's control cluster by force."

"_Control cluster_?" Flash was quickly repeating. "You almost make it sound like this is some sort of rocket ship. Captain Kirk to the bridge..."

"That analogy, in this case, is not too far from the truth," J'onn was the first to react this time, doing so before Batman could glare at Flash for another film reference. J'onn was wincing slightly again as he spoke, his head clearly still under assault. His fellow Martians really mustn't understand the strength of their powers in their new..._state_. "There has to be something holding all the mental energies together that compose this cloud. That something is the solid core that you three battled earlier with the Watchtower repulsor beam. That core isn't just there for show. It is the remnants of the fallen and the Transcended. It is the _brain _of the cloud, if you will. It is through the core that the cloud is controlled, through sending directed thought waves to it. If we can take control of the core, if we can have a mastery of it, even for just a few seconds, we can at least buy the people of Earth some precious time."

"I'll take your word for it," Flash commented after that. It was clear that he hadn't entirely followed what J'onn was saying, but also that he had done so enough to recognise one thing. "All sounds a bit simple to me though."

"That is because a lot of this is hypothetical," J'onn answered swiftly. "As I said, this is the first time a Transcended being has even been known to exist. There is no past example to study and learn from. A lot of what I am basing this on is theory and myth. The telepathic barrage on my mind is too strong for me to probe the Imperium to find out how true the theories are. It could be that the cluster is as easy to control as simply thinking a command. It could be far more difficult, perhaps even more _final_. We just can't know until it has been tried or studied. Right now, there is no time for a field test. We just have to hope that it works."

"Well _that's _good news," Flash muttered the sarcastic comment, sounding slightly put off, but he also didn't look like even slightly wavering. "So which way is th–"

"You're not going," Batman cut in, interrupting Flash and causing both the Scarlet Speedster and Wonder Woman to quickly shoot him a look of confusion. Batman was not slow in explaining. There simply wasn't the time for him to be. "This has to be a two pronged operation. We have two chances of stopping the Imperium. We have to try for both. That means that you're needed elsewhere. You need to get J'onn to the Martians in here. Make them stop focussing their energies on him and to use their telepathic strength to get the cloud to move away from Earth. J'onn's our best chance to convince them. You need to make sure he gets to the Martians safely. If the Imperium realise what we're doing, they'll almost certainly be prepared to draw some energy from the cloud again to stop us. With the access we'll have we'll be a much greater threat to them than the Justice League outside."

"Fine, I'll get him there in no time," Flash retorted, sounding immediately ready to go, already forgetting about getting silenced. Before Wonder Woman had properly realised it and in a red blur, J'onn was taken out of Batman's hands and was draped over Flash instead. "Don't worry, after those last goo-guys, getting there'll be no problem."

"Don't get cocky," Batman quickly snapped. "The ones we faced just now won't have been the elites. They'll have sent the lesser soldiers against us first, keeping the strongest to fuel their quest for far more malleable and a more vast quantity of minds. Don't forget we're only here because they wanted J'onn out of the physical realm. If the Imperium come for us again, things won't be anywhere near as easy."

"I _got _it," Flash groaned, clearly hating getting lectured, regardless of how poignant a warning it was that he was being given. Wonder Woman saw Batman glare at him again. It was a good job that time was of the essence right now and the situation couldn't develop further. "Point the way, big guy. Where are the Mysterons?"

J'onn slowly raised a shaky hand, pointing out across the deserts. "I sense them in that direction, but I cannot break through properly to them against the telepathic bombardment they are still sending my way. I cannot tell them that we are coming, or pinpoint them precisely."

"But _I'll_ find 'em," Flash replied, hoisting J'onn up more so the he was virtually giving the Martian a piggy-back. "Hold on tight."

And without further ado they were gone. Grains of sand were thrown up into the air as Flash ran fast, carrying J'onn away with him, hopefully to both his and the entire world's salvation.

But, as had been said, there were _two _plans being put in action here. It was time to put the other one into action too. It was time for Wonder Woman to do her part, right at Batman's side.

She didn't fail to notice how the four of them had paired off. She knew that it made tactical sense, that it was wise to send Flash with J'onn. J'onn needed to reach his fellow Martians quickly. That was far more important than sending him with someone with greater strength to escort him there. On top of that, if this control core was as important as Batman and J'onn had made out, then it would surely be well protected by the Imperium. That, therefore, was where the strength of Wonder Woman and the guile of Batman were most required.

But Wonder Woman, just as before, couldn't block out the selfish thoughts about the pairing. Despite her well honed warrior instincts having by no means gone away, she couldn't help but feel a slight giddiness at being alone with Batman again, even in a situation as dark as this one.

"Come on, Princess, we've got to move," Batman instructed just seconds after Flash and J'onn departed, turning to lead them the opposite direction. Once again, Wonder Woman got the strong impression that Batman knew too much here. All thoughts that he might have deliberately kept her with him for selfish reasons of his own were so rapidly overridden by those doubts, the doubts as to whether he was really coming back to her,_ at all_.

Batman had turned, but he wasn't moving. Wonder Woman could pretty quickly read his reasons for why. They clearly had a fair distance to travel, and Batman had neither Flash's speed, any of his vehicles or any tall structures to grapple and glide between. They had to get to their target fast, faster than the powerless Batman could run to it. Instead, he was waiting for her to fly him there.

Wonder Woman wasn't slow to comply. She took off as soon as she realised what was going on, sweeping him up while already off the ground, hoisting him up by the shoulders. She flew up fairly high to stop his feet dragging in the sands, going as quick as she dared to go.

"I hope you're still in top shape, Princess," Batman commented from her arms, causing her to look down at him as she surged them on through the red skies. "I'm going to need you to keep the Imperium off my back when we arrive. I'll hopefully be too busy working on the control cluster as soon as we get an opening to it. I'll be counting on you to keep me safe."

"I'll do everything in my power to, Bruce, you know that," Wonder Woman quickly responded to him, surprised that she even had to.

She didn't like the way that he had spoken. It wasn't that he had acknowledged the danger. With what they did, they _always _faced danger. With this cloud, all its surprises and the unknown element of everything in here, especially this _control _cluster, that was perhaps even an understatement.

No, it was the way that once again he sounded so knowledgeable about the cloud when it was apparently something that had never been known to actually exist until now. Wonder Woman couldn't resist any more. It seemed they had a way to travel, and up here in the skies they were alone, with the chance to allow moments of distraction, even if they would only be short moments.

She had to know. She had to know if over his time away his paranoid mind had made him cast aside everything they had said to each other in the Batcave eight months ago. She had to know if he had come back to _her_.

"Bruce, I have to know. Was it... Was it _this _that you came back to the Justice League for? Did you return because of this energy cloud?"

"Yes."

Batman answered her quickly and firmly, no shred of doubts in his voice. Wonder Woman pretty much felt her heart breaking in that second. She knew very well that Bruce would be the only man she would ever love like this. For eight months she had waited for the day when they could finally be together. She wouldn't have done that for any other man, she wouldn't have missed another man this much. Now it seemed that the cloud had just claimed its first victim; all of Diana's hopes and dreams felt like they were being snatched from her by just that singular word.

"While at a charity do for the Wayne Foundation at the Gotham Observatory, one of the researchers there showed me this tiny speck of light they had picked up in the vicinity of Mars," Batman went on, beginning to explain in more depth.

He sounded completely oblivious to what he was putting Wonder Woman through, despite the fact that she was sure she wasn't hiding it well at all. In fact, she was hardly able to listen to the rest of what Batman was saying, though she forced herself to. She had to have hope, she couldn't give up. That was her way, in this and in the fight. She had to believe there was a reasonable explanation for all of this. The problem was her emotions weren't letting her find one, and ignoring her feelings had never been something she was very good at.

"They couldn't explain it, they thought it was just a playful, harmless anomaly a long way away from us," Batman continued. "But with all the extra-terrestrial things we've seen in the Justice League I decided that as soon as I got back to the Batcave I was going to check it out. I used astrological readings picked up from the Observatory's databanks, comparing them against the cultural database from the Watchtower. I accessed it all remotely, without detection, searching through all the files compiled by J'onn, Shayera, GL and our other space oriented members. What I found was a report J'onn had put in there, clearly half-heartedly, discussing the ideas of Transcendence. With the energy and matter readings the Observatory had recorded, it was the only thing I could find that made sense, and so I began calculating the potential repercussions of what it could mean, especially when I got a trajectory on the cloud and knew it was heading here. However, I thought I had more time. I thought that it would take the cloud longer to arrive, that I had time to take care of Penguin's scheme first. But yes, it was the cloud that I came back for. I knew that it had to be stopped."

"And if it wasn't for the cloud...? Is it _all _that you came back for?" Diana almost felt like she was pleading, It wasn't like her at all, but it was another sign of just how much this one man could affect her. Damn him.

"Princess, please," Batman responded to her, looking up to her face at last. She wished she could get some sort of read on him, but his damn cowl was still keeping him well shrouded in mystery. "I told you before that I'll explain everything to you when the time is right. It wasn't the time then, it definitely isn't now. We have to focus on stopping the cloud. We can't afford the distractions."

"Hera, Bruce, why do you think I'm pressing this now? I'm already distra–!" Wonder Woman began to exclaim his way, but she never got the chance to finish her sentence. Given all that had happened in the last few moments, the environment around them wasn't something she had been paying particularly close attention to, particularly since they were up here in the air. But she had forgotten that they were in a world made up of thoughts. Of course it would be possible for the environment to be changed; this wasn't the real world.

Of course the Imperium would want to use that to help prevent her and Batman from reaching the control cluster as soon as they realised they were on their way.

Wonder Woman had to give up on the talking, no matter how important it was to her. She was suddenly too busy having to dive and roll out of the way as the giant trees suddenly grew right in their path, clearly trying to block her, to make her crash straight into them. Clearly they were getting close to the core.

Tugging Batman in close, Wonder Woman dove. The trees were getting too close, despite her efforts. She felt branches scraping against her as she did everything to avoid the things growing out of nowhere, knowing that the same would be hitting Bruce from within her arms. She had already had enough of this. If the Imperium wanted a fight they could have one, a _proper _one. The Imperium couldn't fly, so they were trying to take that advantage away from her. She was willing to allow that. The anger that Bruce had just put into her meant that she was more than ready for a fight anyway.

As she set Batman down and then landed right beside him, Wonder Woman could tell that the sands below them had turned into soil, but she didn't dwell on that. The trees were disappearing almost as quickly as they had arrived, but behind them plenty of Imperium soldiers were coming into view. However, these ones were armed; they did have those guns the physical Imperium had used before. Batman had been right; that alone made sure that they were deadlier than the ones they had already fought in the cloud.

But Wonder Woman was ready for them, and she could tell that Batman was too. He was already getting his batarangs drawn, while she was raising her fists and deflecting bracelets to a fighting stance. The Imperium may feel they had caught the invaders in a trap, but Wonder Woman knew that conversely they were exactly where they wanted to be.

For looking beyond the Imperium, she could see the giant tower of pure light, stretching into the skies further than the eye could see. There was no doubt in her mind. That was surely the control core. It had to be.

And it was virtually within reach. All they had to do was get these Imperium out of the way. _All they had to do_.

Wonder Woman did not wait for Batman to say anything before acting. She didn't want to wait to hear him talk again right now. She just wanted to unleash her fury.

And save the world in the process.

The fighting had begun again.

She just wished that the unforeseen fight for Bruce wasn't lost already.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_**Evening all. Bit late but here you go. Please, feel free to review away, chums! 'Tis much appreciated!**_

_**Also, since this story was being written when Egon died, and its quite apt here given a few of the lines, screw it I'll be nice. Chapter dedicated to the memory of Harold Ramis.**_


	10. Chapter 9: All's Fair

**Chapter 9: All's Fair...**

Nothing that they had tried had worked yet, and they had tried a lot of things. They were having even less success than the guys and gals down there facing the thing head on. All the kit, all the advanced technology at their disposal, and none of it was doing a damn thing. Even what Batman and the others had been up to before the cloud turned them into vegetables wasn't an option, not anymore. Blasting it with repulsor beams now that it was in the atmosphere wouldn't be a smart move. They'd only end up getting it to the people of Metropolis faster.

Green Arrow hated to admit it, but they were out of options. From up here, there was nothing more that they could do.

"T., we managed to get the magic circle all in session?" he asked, looking up from his monitors after giving up on his last attempt against the cloud.

"They've all gathered at Dr. Fate's home," Mr. Terrific replied. "I don't really want to disturb them. Last I heard they were trying to use their combined powers against it, but were yet to have any success."

"Yeah, they're not the only ones," Arrow muttered in response. "You got the number of that guy commanding the marines?"

"A General Felix Mulligan, yes," Mr Terrific answered him again. "Do you want me to open a channel?"

"Yeah, I do," Green Arrow was quickly nodding the affirmative, looking back to his screens at the cloud drawing ever closer to the vast, highly populated city. "Gather up every available body we've still got up here, would you? There's no point in us hanging around. It's time to go see how the other side live. We've gotta go see if the marines want a hand in getting that city empty.

"Oh, and T.," Arrow quickly added, watching the developments on the screen ever closer. Things _really _weren't looking good. Unless Superman, Shayera and the rest could pull off a miracle, or Dr. Fate and his magicians had a trick left up their many sleeves, the cloud would be hitting Metropolis any minute now. It truly was relentless. "Hurry."

* * *

Green Lantern was throwing all his will and every ounce of effort that he could muster behind the light of his power ring. The energy cloud couldn't break through the giant barrier he had been able to create, but neither was it being stopped. It just kept on coming, pushing GL backwards through the air as it rammed its full strength against his barrier, and it had _plenty _of power. GL was trying, but he couldn't resist its force. However, he was managing to slow it down. That was why he couldn't stop. He had to keep this thing as slowed down as he could, and hope that one of the others would find the way to stop it that they had been sorely lacking up until now.

When he had woken up this morning GL had never thought that he would go going toe to toe with a _cloud_, but here he was. As if to convince himself of the reality and desperate necessity of the situation, Green Lantern dared to peer behind him through the strains of effort he was throwing into trying to hold his ground. They may still be in the skies, but Metropolis was becoming ever clearer to see. Hell, Lantern almost felt like he could make out the whites of the eyes of the people down in the streets below as they all started to take notice of what was going on above them. They were close enough that he could see the panic setting in in the city, and the first signs of the marines coming in to try and take control of the situation.

However, what GL could see the most was that they were already simply too damn close.

"Need a hand?"

The voice was Superman's. Sure enough, the red and blue blur suddenly came into view, the man of steel then visibly hovering between GL and his will-powered barricade. Superman wasn't alone either. She didn't quite posses Superman's speed, but Shayera was not far behind the big Kryptonian, taking up a similar position. However, she wasn't so quick and ready to even look at GL, let alone talk to him. GL knew that was his fault, and it actually hurt him quite deeply. Now, though, wasn't the time to fix that.

"If there's nothing else you need to be doing..."

GL's answer was deliberately non-committal. He knew all about the complete plethora of powers at Superman's disposal from plenty of first-hand experience. He didn't want those to go to waste if there was somewhere else where they could be better used. He also knew, though, that Superman wouldn't be hiding away, especially given this was his city at stake. He would have already tried his powers, likely in every combination he could think of. The fact that he was here now was far from comforting.

"Nothing more important than driving that thing away," Superman returned. "Come on, Shayera. Time to push."

There was no need for GL to change anything that he was doing. He was already putting all his energy into trying to push the cloud backwards. Now, though, he had help. Before his eyes he watched as Superman and Shayera pushed too. They both planted their hands flat against the light he was creating as if it were just an ordinary wall. Then, with all their combined strength and momentum, they began pushing. GL made sure that the only reason the light fought their efforts was because of the cloud pushing back from the other side.

And, what was more, it was working.

GL had been slowing the cloud down before. Now, with the strength of both a Kryptonian and a Thanagarian pushing with him, the cloud was pretty much being held to a standstill. They were doing it. The thing wasn't going away, the measure was temporary, _but it was working_. It didn't matter if all three of them were having to grunt and groan from the straining efforts. All that mattered was that they kept it up for long enough for a better plan to come to mind.

But, of course up against this thing, GL had grown too optimistic too soon. The bugger wasn't going down without a fight, and it had already proved that it was damn good at brawling, even against the best. This time was no different.

GL saw the energy surge coming before it actually hit. He tried to counter it, to throw more power behind the light, but he had already been giving it full juice. His efforts were futile, completely useless. There was nothing he could really do but allow his eyes to widen in horror as the sudden huge jolt of energy struck.

The green barricade was smashed apart as if it had been made of glass as the tentacle like energy surged outwards, ahead of the main body of the cloud. It was all that GL could do to make sure that enough of the barricade remained intact to shield Superman, Shayera and himself. It just about managed to save them from the same fate that had befallen Batman, J'onn, Wonder Woman and Flash on the Watchtower.

But it couldn't save them from being thrown across the skies as if they had been caught in the shock wave of a bomb blast. GL only just managed to regain control of his flight before he was slamming into one of the luxury towers of Metropolis. He had to catch Shayera before she slammed into him and made it happen anyway.

She was quick to shrug him off of her as soon as she had her own control back, still not saying a word to him, but she didn't fly away. Neither of them could for a brief moment. They were overcome by the shock of seeing the cloud again. Now that the barricade was gone, it was slowed no longer. Before their eyes, the thing was surging forwards. GL could now hear the screams from the people down in the city, a city which he could now reach out and touch. He knew that if he turned around to look through the windows right behind his back, he would likely be face-to-face with scared and screaming citizens who were yet to begin to run.

The energy cloud was almost on them.

Not only that, it was almost on _them_. That tentacle of energy that had broken GL's barricade had not merged back into the cloud's main body. Instead, it was poised to strike again. Poised to strike right in GL and Shayera's path...

Clearly the building behind the two of them was its true target. Clearly there were still many people inside that vast tower. But that didn't mean that the two of them were in the clear, not for one second. In fact, it put them in even greater danger. They couldn't run away. They couldn't leave all those people in there to suffer and potentially die. They had to _try _and save them, even if everything they had tried up until then had failed miserably. They had to hold ground and hope they could stop the tentacle this time. They had to hope that it wouldn't stop _them_.

"Shayera..." GL began to say. The tentacle was poised, its energy levels clearly building. They only had seconds. Despite all his avoidance of her to try and get his head sorted, John Stewart couldn't help but want to talk to her in what could well be their last moments. He had to at least _apologise _for all that he had put her through. However, she was having none of it.

"Save it!" she quickly growled, her mace firmly back in her grip, itself powering up. Her voice made it clear enough, but the fact that she didn't even want to look at him made it even clearer in that moment. She _didn't _want to talk. "Just get that ring of yours lit up, fast!"

GL did as he was told. The green light began forming before them, stretched out ahead of them to try and keep the cloud well away from the skyscraper. His jaw clenched even more than before, knowing that facing this could well be their last stand. He only just got the light in place in time before the energy of the cloud began to strike.

And immediately it managed to smash his shield to pieces once again. It had a strength beyond what he could muster. It had a power beyond his. He couldn't stop it.

Once again, his eyes widened in horror, only this time there was no way out. There was no safe zone for them to be blown into. The trap of the building saw to that. Shayera held her mace at the ready, but even as GL tried to reform the shield he knew that there was now nothing either of them could do. He braced himself for the end...

But it never came.

GL felt the edge of the icy wind cross his face, seeing out of his eye corners as Superman flew in with his super speed and began to try and literally blow the cloud away. He wasn't the only one attempting to fly to the rescue either. At the exact same moment, Captain Atom flew in from the opposite direction, sending targeted blasts of radiation right into the tentacle of the cloud. His and Superman's attacks struck at the exact same time, just a heartbeat before the tentacle was about to hit.

After so many failures, they had finally done it. They had finally found a method, a combination that could beat the cloud. The combined efforts of the two strong Leaguers worked. GL, Shayera and all the people in the skyscraper were saved. The tentacle was stopped.

But it wasn't only stopped. An electrical wail split the skies for miles around. It was almost like the cloud was screaming in pain, that what had been done to it was agonising. If they were right and that thing was alive, then it likely _was _agonising. For the tentacle wasn't just stopped. It was hacked clean off. Freezing irradiation completely severed the chunk of energy from the cloud. GL didn't get the science of it but he didn't care to either. It was like cutting a man's arm off. The tentacle began to fall, limp, even the sparks of energy fading with its source lost.

That might have meant they had cause for celebration. _Might_. But they didn't. Severing the chunk of energy wasn't enough. It may be severed, it may be draining, but there was still plenty of energy there, enough for it to hold its shape as it dropped. In that instant the old tall tales about what would happen if a penny was dropped off the Empire State Building sprang through GL's mind. He could see countless people on the road down below, crammed in the streets, trapped in the gridlock from their efforts to flee, the marines yet to get them clear.

And the tentacle was heading straight for them.

With his ring GL made a desperate attempt to catch the thing, but the extra power that had been put into the tentacle meant that even severed he could do nothing to stop it. Still not a physical thing, there was nothing Superman, Shayera or Captain Atom could really do either. They tried, they all tried _something_, but it was all in vain.

With a crack like thunder, the tentacle hit the streets, citizens included. There was the briefest moment when many voices cried out in harmonious pain, and then there was just silence down there. GL saw the bodies fall where the light had hit them. Even severed, the energy of the cloud seemed to have the same effect.

The cloud had just claimed its next set of victims.

"No!" Superman shouted at the sight, clearly feeling the loss. He wasn't the only one either. GL could already feel the lump forming in his throat, but he was also fighting it away. Grief was important, but it could wait. They had to try and make sure there weren't any more people to also grieve first.

However, that didn't stop GL from briefly glancing at Shayera to make sure she was all right, only to discover that she had already flown off, back to join the rest of the fight against the cloud.

"It worked," GL stumbled around the words, almost silently the first time before rediscovering his steely, charismatic voice. "Superman, Captain Atom, whatever you just did beat this thing. Can you use it against the cloud? Can you destroy it?"

"We can..." Captain Atom began in his heavily accented twang, not sounding overly convinced or happy at the idea.

"What the Captain means is, _dare we do it_?" Superman quickly interpreted. "From what we just saw we could well do more damage than good. Sacrificing ourselves is one thing, sacrificing innocents is another. We have to find another way."

"There might not _be _another way," GL pointed out, not dancing around the issue. There wasn't time for them to sit around and debate the morality of the situation. They were in it now. They had to deal with it and find a way to accept the consequences. The rest of the Justice League were still battling the cloud, the people were still trying to get to safety. The three of them _had _to get back to helping, fast.

"We can't–"

But what they couldn't do GL didn't get to hear. Superman's words trailed off. Clearly he had heard something, something that _really _caught his attention, something so quiet or distant that GL hadn't a clue what it was.

"Keep fighting the cloud. I'll be back in a minute!" Superman then suddenly barked out the orders, without the hint of an explanation. Before GL could ask for one, the last son of Krypton was gone, disappearing with another red and blue blur. Captain Atom merely looked at GL and shrugged.

"Back to plan A it is," he commented, before turning and flying away, back towards the main body of the cloud. Even with the Justice League still fully engaging it, the thing was beginning to position itself right over the city. It was getting ready to absorb massive chunks in one swift blast. Captain Atom was right. With Superman gone, they had to just keep trying _anything_ to stop it.

GL quickly looked back down at the city. He could see the marines moving in, but he could also see that there was a long way to go before the evacuation was done. A _long _way to go.

The Justice League were still Metropolis' only real hope.

And so GL got back to work, however futile that might be.

* * *

"Folks, whatever this thing is, it sure seems powerful," Snapper said, maintaining his usual tone despite the very real dangers going on all around them. Lois had to give him credit. He was a very good journalist...for TV.

The news helicopter had arrived at the roof of the Daily Planet only seconds after Lois herself did. Only a few seconds later than that, they were up in the skies, flying fast up to that..._thing_. Lois was in the back of the helicopter. Snapper was typically up front with the pilot, as close to the action as he could get, view completely unobstructed. Lois couldn't say the same thing. She had the cameraman with all his gear in her way as Snapper was determined his report wouldn't miss a single second of the action.

But Lois could see enough to know that there was plenty of action happening out there. _Plenty. _And none of it looked like the good kind either.

She had known Superman for long enough. Hell, she had certainly got caught up enough in his superhero shenanigans. She ought to be qualified by now to recognise these things when she saw them. She certainly felt sure that she knew the signs of Superman and his super friends kicking some bad guy ass.

And she was spotting none of them now. In fact, she was practically seeing the opposite. This cloud thing was giving the Justice League hell.

Yep. This was certainly going to be one hell of a story unfolding right before their eyes. And Lois had got herself in prime position to see it.

Perhaps _too _much so...

"It's fair to say that this reporter has certainly never seen anything like it, and I'm already hoping that we don't have to see it for very much longer. That said, we will keep bringing you minute by minute pictures of this as events unfold and the Justice League risk all to try and save the world once again," Snapper was still going on, although Lois was only half listening to his commentary. Her eyes were glued to what part of the action she could see, and not only for journalistic reasons. She was keeping an eye on..._certain _heroes too. _That _was why she was really on this ride, and she was relieved to say that even though they weren't winning, the Justice Leaguers out there were all still alive.

And it was a ride that could make any roller-coaster pale, especially as they got ever closer to the action. Lois could have sworn that she warned Snapper not to let the pilot get carried away, that they should avoid getting too close. It was a good job for them that there was never really a chance to say '_told you so_'.

For to get the best pictures, to truly show this cloud and the Justice League in action, the helicopter had to get in close, no doubt so the audience could feel like they were living it with their heroes. It was good journalism. It also happened to foolhardy, and perhaps stupid. It didn't matter that they were just observers.

They had gone and made themselves into a _very_ prominent target.

Lois saw as Superman, Green Lantern and the former Hawkgirl got blown through the skies by a branch of energy leaping from the cloud. As she tracked Superman across the sky, blocking Snapper out in that moment's worry, she saw it out of her eye corners. It was remarkable considering the size of that thing, and how much it contrasted with the pale blue skies, but it had managed to creep up on them. Part of it, anyway.

For the cloud was beginning to _surround _them. And none of the others had realised it yet. The pilot was flying them right into a trap.

"Snapper, I know I said I'd keep my trap shut, but we got a problem here!" she called out for all to hear. No doubt that really was _all_. The live broadcasting microphone would no doubt have picked her voice up. Sure enough, Snapper was quickly flashing a glare back at her for interrupting, but in doing so he made himself face what Lois had seen. That made the anger that had emerged on his face instantly change to fear.

"Get us out of here! Now!" he quickly shouted out to the pilot, stammering around the words. It was odd to hear from such an accomplished journalist, but Lois couldn't blame him. What was happening regarding everyone else had to be completely forgotten. The wisps of energy were virtually in touching distance outside of Lois' window now.

The walls had sprung from nowhere, and they were closing in. Fast.

The pilot actually let out a squeal as he too saw the danger they had put themselves in. Instantly he tried to get them out of there, throwing the controls to full speed instead of the cruising rate he had been going at before so the camera could get the clearest shots. Up until that point, the helicopter's path had been left clear, obviously some part of the trap to keep them thinking they were safe. It was that clear run that the pilot was aiming for. It was also the exact place where the cloud threw up its energies to stop them.

A cacophony of screams and gasps followed _that _sight. In that instant, even Lois Lane had her life flash before her eyes, despite all of her bravery and aptitude for being rescued from the most ridiculous of dangers. Thankfully, the pilot's reflexes were sharp enough the throw the helicopter into a dive, but that only kept _them_ out of the cloud's energy, diving into the last gap in the bubble that it had formed around them.

But the dive could do nothing for the rotors. Up top there, the helicopter couldn't dive quick enough to get everything through to the clean air. Lois couldn't really see it, but she could certainly hear it, _feel _it. She was no scientist but she could figure what had happened. This cloud thing seemed to be all about energy. The rotors coming into contact with that vast amount of power must have overloaded them. All of a sudden, they lost all power. There was nothing left to keep them in the air.

The helicopter began to plummet, and fast. Worse, it wasn't far down until the very _solid _ground of Metropolis. For the second time in seconds, it seemed the end was nigh.

But that wasn't even the end of the problems. Snapper was only just beginning to yell something out when it happened. Apparently the cloud wasn't going to be happy until it had dealt with them itself. _Directly_. The flash of the energy was almost blinding as a tentacle similar to the one that had attacked Superman and his pals whipped through the helicopter as if it wasn't there.

Instinctively, Lois flung herself back in her seat, as far as she could get. It was a good job too. It meant that she wasn't caught in the light. Very close to it, but she made it out of the way in time. The other three, however, did not. Lois gasped in horror as she watched all three – Snapper, the cameraman and the pilot – go limp.

Then she remembered the very imminent ground, and thought that perhaps they were going to prove to be the lucky ones.

She should have known, though, that such thoughts were too soon, especially with her very powerful, very caring guardian angel around.

* * *

He had heard the screams, even over all the ruckus of battle and fear around the city. With his enhanced hearing, he was _always _listening out for her, always ready to make sure she was all right. It was why he was always there to save her. Despite all that was going on, despite all that was at stake, despite there being many, _many _others in just as deadly peril, now was no different.

Superman could not let Lois die, no matter how many others would be lost. He could easily sacrifice himself for others should he have to, but never her.

He caught the carcass of the helicopter only seconds before it smashed into the concrete of the streets. He lifted it as if it were nothing but feathers, not even slowing when he did so, despite the desire being intense in him to stop and check that Lois was all right inside it. He had heard the other screams stop, his x-ray vision showing him only one person inside it moving; Lois. He didn't have to have seen what had happened to understand that the cloud had struck again. He was just relieved that somehow it had missed her.

The cloud was still up there in the sky, still close by and getting ever closer to the city. The Justice League were still battling it, but Superman knew that if there was anyone left at the top of the tallest towers, then they would quickly be following the fate of Lois' fellow helicopter occupants. He had to get back up there, to try and stop it, _somehow_. Just as soon as he had Lois taken to safety.

It didn't take him long to spot where the marines had set up their command post to lead the evacuation. The hub for saving people, it was definitely the safest place in the city, and so the safest place he could take her right now. Even with his speed, he couldn't afford to fly any further, not with all those people at risk.

Within seconds he was setting the helicopter's battered and broken shell down beside the trucks and the troops. Almost straight after, Lois was scrambling out of it, throwing herself at him in a very relieved embrace.

"You took you're sweet ass time," she muttered to him. She sounded annoyed, but Superman knew her better. She was saying a very sincere 'thank you'.

"I was in the middle of something," was his rebuttal, no more explanation needed. "I know you'll want this story, but Lois, please get out of here. Get the marines to get you clear, and get Snapper and the others looked after. I have to get back up there."

"Sure thing, cowboy," she returned, though she did lean in to plant a quick, caring kiss on him. "You be careful up there."

"Aren't I always?" he replied, putting confidence into his voice that this cloud had really stated to drain out of him. With that he made as if to launch, to fly away back to the action and the source of the screams ringing in his ears. However, the shout made him pause for a moment.

"Superman! Wait!"

It was Green Arrow calling. Superman quickly looked up. The man who modelled himself on Robin Hood was striding rapidly across to him, a very official looking military man right at his side. That officer had a scowl on his experienced, battle-worn face that Batman would be proud of.

"This is General Felix Mulligan," Arrow wasted no time in explaining. "He's in charge of the evac operation. He wants a wo–"

"What the hell are you _doing_?" the General thundered, interrupting Arrow mid-word. He certainly seemed to have a temper, this man. Hopefully he was able to use it the right way. "Why aren't you destroying that thing up there?"

"It's not as simple as it sounds General..." Superman began to try and counter, well aware that there wasn't really time for this. The General knew that too.

"I know damn well how simple it is!" he bellowed so loud that the spittle began flying. "We all saw what happened a minute ago. We know you found a way to destroy that thing! And, yes, before you say anything, we also know the dangers you're method has. My guys on the front lines say those people the bit you broke off hit are all dead, but we don't have a choice. That thing just took out several city blocks while you were playing with helicopters! Hell, it even got the famous Daily Planet building. We don't have time to dither, to worry. We don't have the time needed to get these people out of here. We have to go for the greater good, the lesser evil. If you _don't _destroy it, more people will be lost than if you do. Now get the hell back up there! Finish this!"

If there was the time for him to be, that would have stunned Superman into a momentary silence. His eyes even began to scan for the signatory globe amongst the rooftops, but he couldn't spot it where it should be. It was indeed shrouded in the darkness. First there was the fact that even more people than he had realised had been lost to the cloud, including his own friends from the sound of things. Perry White... Jimmy Olson... They would likely have still been in the Planet, and if the cloud had absorbed it all... And then there was that other thing. It must have been because the tentacle had been separated from the cloud's main body, but something that _he _had caused had gotten several people killed.

And he was being asked, perhaps even _forced _to do so again. If the city was being taken out from under them, perhaps the General was right...

But this certainly was not a call that Superman wanted to make. He didn't know if his conscience could take it.

"Superman!" the General barked, making Superman realise that he had wound up being stunned anyway. The General was staring at him pointedly, Green Arrow likewise waiting for Superman's response. He could also feel Lois stood behind him, likewise staring, expectedly. A lot hung on how he was going to reply.

He did so by raising a hand to his ear, and hoping to high heaven that he wasn't going to wind up regretting this.

"Superman to Captain Atom. We need to regroup. We don't have a choice any more. Regardless of the risks, we need to destroy the cloud. Now."


End file.
